Someone To Believe In
by duskbutterfly
Summary: "Didn't you ever wish that there'd been an error? That someone would walk into your classroom and explain there'd been a mistake; that you were really meant to be two or three grades above." Nell and Eric get sent undercover, playing happy family to hide the daughter of two dead NCIS analysts bringing out a lot of their struggles with being the smartest kid in the room.
1. All I Ever Wanted

**A/N: **A massive thankyou to everyone who has read my other fics, especially to those who've taken the time to review – so inspiring and just amazing. Ever since writing Clothes Maketh the Man I've wanted to explore Nell's past but quickly realised, with all her walls a one shot just wasn't going to cut it. That said; the two fics are nothing alike. There is a case and it will be important but this time it's Nell's psyche we're delving into and, of course, there'll be Neric along the way.

**Dedication: **For SilverSentinal21 for all her advice, support, general awesomeness and for reminding me that we all have a saga waiting to be written. Hopefully it will live up to expectations.

**Disclaimer: ** NCIS and NCIS LA, sadly remain the property of CBS.

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**Someone to Believe In**

**Chapter 1: All I Ever Wanted**

**.**

"Didn't you ever wish that there'd been an error? That someone would walk into your classroom and explain there'd been a mistake; that you were really meant to be two or three grades above. That you _belonged_, not with the people who were technically your age but with the real group who were doing the same work as you, so you wouldn't be the one off to the side who had different things to do. That for once, you got to do exactly what everyone else was doing without feeling like you were stuck playing with baby toys? For once we have the opportunity to right a wrong in our school system."

Nell had expected the frustration, even the emotional appeal wasn't totally unexpected but the raw emotion in Eric's voice, the pleading look in his eyes and the echoes of clearly painful memories buried just below the surface brought her something close to physical pain. In fact, she was pretty sure she would have rather had part of her slashed to ribbons than be standing here right now. Being here right now meant having to think about a time in her life when she didn't have the tungsten strength walls shielding her from the world. When she'd felt like the cracks in her paper-thin shell were being held together with sticky tape and she didn't want to open that door. But this was bigger than either of them. Bigger than protecting the vulnerable part of herself she kept hidden deep inside. This was about irrevocably changing a little girl's life.

"This isn't just a number on a page at the bottom of a file, Eric. We'd be changing a fundamental part of who she is. Changing the year she was born could create irrevocable damage in other parts of her life. While you're at school your age is everything but we don't spend our whole life at school. And just because it wasn't good for us, doesn't mean her experience will be the same." It hadn't come out in the clinical, logical tone she'd wanted. She could hear the banked up emotion slipping in, echoing some of Eric's.

"How many times have you been 'the youngest person to' do whatever it is you're doing? How often do people question if you're the right person for the job based solely on the year on your birth certificate? Because that certainly didn't stop when I left College let alone high school." For the first time since they'd started this conversation, Eric sounded angry.

Nell couldn't help wincing inwardly at the truth in what he said. The only difference between being 'the youngest' at high school and after she'd left, had been that she'd learnt how not to let it hurt her.

If she'd had time to think about it she would have realised she'd never actually seen him get angry before. Sure he was annoyed, protective, frustrated but somehow there was always a part of him which seemed to hold back, that stopped him from ever reaching that tipping point of true anger, the kind that could escalate into rage. The kind of emotion that made people without control lash out at whatever was closest with their tongues or fists.

.

"Mr Beale. Ms Jones." Hetty's voice cut through the tension in the room like a knife, denying Nell her chance to answer.

.

For just a moment she thought Eric was going to tell Hetty to keep out of it; that he would lose some of the non-confrontational nature which seemed infused in his very being. But while the intensity still burned in his eyes he acknowledged Hetty and allowed her to take control of the situation. He hadn't given up his case but was prepared to be temporarily redirected.

Nell had never been so relieved to hear Hetty's voice as she was right now. She knew it was cowardly, and she'd hate herself for it later, but she didn't want to answer. Eric was one of the only people in her life she didn't have to lie to but in this case, what would the truth have cost her? She'd locked all those memories up in a box and there was nothing good that could come of opening that lid. She had not just survived but walked away stronger, that was all she cared to remember.

Standing with hands clasped behind her back, her expression foreboding, Hetty looked at her two Techs facing one-another on opposite sides of the Island, their stances combative. It had already been an extremely stressful case and with one of the other pairs she had the feeling they would have already moved this conversation to the gym so that they could channel all their frustration into physical action. Eric, for the first time ever, looked like he could almost want to hit something - but his mind, Hetty knew was stronger than that. He had no affinity with violence and unless forced to fight by extreme duress, she had the feeling he never would. Nell on the other hand, was capable of violence, she'd proved that, but it still wasn't instinctive. There were people like Callen, Ziva and Herself who had it written into their DNA; people like Gibbs and Sam whose training had redefined their instincts; and people like Kensi and Deeks who'd found the institutions to control that part of them that the harsh realities of life had exposed. But Nell was different. Nell didn't fit the normal agent profiles. Although she had shown she could perform highly as an agent, it was in order to create the most balanced skill set possible. It enabled her to understand so much more than just intelligence analysis, diplomacy or logistics. By being trained in the field she could anticipate problems, get the right information to the right people and respond rather than react without the usual burdens of formulaic logistical planning. The one thing she lacked was the indestructible nature but her compassion was also a strength. Yes, Hetty was very glad to have Nell at her disposal. She'd known there would be teething problems - the best often liked to work alone, but each pair she created balanced one another.

She'd known, as soon as the case had come to her attention, that it would test Nell and Eric more than anyone else on the team but she'd hoped she wouldn't be needed as a mediator so quickly. Then again, she wasn't strictly needed yet but right now she needed their A-game and that meant them working together. If this situation didn't have the unpleasant stench of an inside job there would be other options: safe houses, well known and highly trained agents but right now, what she needed was for a way to hide in plain sight, even if it meant breaking protocol.

"You both," Hetty began, looking from one to the other significantly, "make excellent points. However something has happened which means we need to change our plans. It will no longer be sufficient to merely create a new identity for Bethany and assist in her movement into foster care and hopefully adoption. Her life is still at risk and until we are able to neutralise that threat I am sending you undercover as her guardians."

Almost as soon as Hetty completed her sentence Nell and Eric were opening their mouths but before either of them could get a single syllable out in protest, Hetty held up a hand and continued.

"We have a six-year-old girl with an IQ rivalling yours Mr Beale, who has just lost both her parents - who, need I remind you, were some of our own. We do not know yet why they are after her but the only people who have managed to break down her walls and gain a little of her trust so far have been the two of you. Ms Blye and Mr Deeks, while more accustomed to undercover work, can't relate and sadly to blend into a community with the least possible scrutiny, you still need a mother and a father, which rules out Mr Callen and Mr Hanna. There will of course be surveillance and your training Ms Jones, will be sufficient to protect you until back up arrives in the highly unlikely event that this red-herring style operation becomes dangerous."

Nell's mind was in a tailspin. She was _not_ the right person to be put in charge of any six-year-old let alone one who was grieving her parents' deaths and being hunted by unknown forces. Yes, she had occasionally looked after her nieces and nephews when they were that age, even had two of them stay the night at her place once, but her sister (their mother) had been just a phone call away, the novelty of being at her place had been enough to ensure they were on their best behaviour and she'd been able to spoil them rotten. And yes, technically she was trained to protect assets and go undercover when necessary. But none of that, in any way, prepared her for being a mother, albeit a temporary one. Children, especially Bethany, would need someone who could open not just their arms but also their heart completely - you couldn't go halfway and Nell wasn't any good at displays of affection. With the exception of her family and her closest friends, she'd really rather people didn't hug her - there was a thing called personal space and she was perfectly happy with keeping hers to herself. Physical distance encouraged a degree of emotional distance, which simplified so many things. She was quite happy with her walls, they'd served her very well so far...but she couldn't deny the truth in Hetty's argument.

_Despite the best efforts of the Deeks, Kensi, Callen & Sam to entice Bethany play or talk they'd all hit a wall. So much so that they'd wondered if she had one of the spectrum disorders that so frequently went with high intelligence and would have limited her ability to relate to the people around her. It was Eric who made the break through. Seeing her sitting quietly doing nothing despite being surrounded by piles of toys, books and materials to draw with (gathered by turning out every cupboard, draw and desk in the entire Mission. Considering no child had ever visited, it had been amazing how many things had accumulated over the years) he'd sat down beside her and asked if she'd help him with his Sudoku. He'd gotten stuck and her Dad had told him once that she was a Master at solving them. The team had bitten down hard on their tongues and held their breath, they'd been so careful not to mention her parents. But the dejected little girl had come alive. Confident little hands had reached for the iPad and to everyone's amazement she began to chatter away about how they were her favourite thing to do. Her face clouded as she told Eric she got to help her dad with the one in the paper every morning but with some gentle encouragement from Eric she was working away eagerly enough on his puzzle. _

_Nell, who'd been dragged down from Ops by Kensi ("Because this was the cutest thing you'll ever see.") had to admit Kensi had a point. Eric was sitting cross-legged on the floor holding the iPad so Bethany, who was perched in his lap, had two free hands to try to solve the puzzle. Bethany, with her serious expression and the tip of her tongue poking out the corner of her mouth in concentration, was utterly gorgeous. But it was Eric who held Nell's attention the longest. She'd never thought about him being a father one day, but looking at the way he played with Bethany, she couldn't help but hope he had his own little girl some day. Bethany had become so attached to Eric she'd cried and clung like a limpet when he tried to go back upstairs so he'd ended up having to stay helping her do Samurai Sudokus with only the occasional IM to check on progress in Ops. And it had been Nell, hours later who'd managed to entice Bethany, with promise of Oreos and treasure hunt she'd set up in the gym, so that Eric could have a short break and set up the conference call between Hetty & Sec Nav to update him on the progress in the case. She'd tired Bethany out enough to hand her over to Kensi to supervise her nap, which is how both she and Eric were now back in Ops._

Nell's thoughts were derailed by the swoosh of the Ops doors sliding open and she looked up to see a blur of red and white charging towards Eric. It took Nell a second to realise, as impossible as it should have been for Bethany to find them, she had. Eric meanwhile had seen her coming and reached down to swing her up into his arms.

"What are you doing up here Munchkin?" he asked as she wrapped arms and legs around him as though clinging on for dear life.

Bethany was saved from answering by the doors of Ops sweeping open a second time to reveal an out-of-breath Kensi. "I swear I only took my eyes off her for a second. One minute she's sleeping peacefully on the couch the next thing I know she's halfway up the stairs and all she had to do when she reached the top was say 'Eric' and some helpful - uh - person - pointed her in here! I'm telling you, she's going to be a sprint champion one day."

Eric however wasn't listening; he'd gently shifted so he had a free hand to tuck the curtain of blonde hair, which was hiding Bethany's face, back behind her ear so he could see her eyes.

"Why didn't you tell Kensi you'd woken up? I would have come back downstairs like I promised." He asked quietly.

"I thought I'd lost you!" Bethany began with a sniff, "then I remembered you said you worked upstairs and I thought if I came up here then you wouldn't have to go away again. I can sit quietly I promise, just don't make me go away." Eric's heart had melted the moment she'd thrown herself at him and between her effort not to cry and her big hazel eyes looking up into his, he knew he was a goner. He might not be ready to be a father, terrible at undercover ops and way too in love with Nell to be any good at pretending to be married to her - but there was no way he was going to let anything happen to this little girl. And if Hetty said this was their best shot at protecting her then he was prepared to give up his chair in Ops for a house in some sleepy neighbourhood.

"It's ok, I'm not going anywhere. I've got you and I'm not going to let anything happen to you." Eric said earnestly, pressing a kiss to the top of her head as she rested it on his shoulder.

Looking up, Eric's eyes met the other pair of hazel eyes he was unable to resist. He knew the idea of them looking after Bethany scared her. He'd seen it flash across her face when Hetty had suggested it, even though she'd done her very best to hide it, but he couldn't look after Bethany alone.

Nell knew they didn't really have a choice; Bethany had forced their hands. There was no way to separate Bethany from Eric now and he was her partner so by default it was her job to protect them. Her logical mind told her that NCIS OSP did have other female agents but Nell felt a stab of something like pain at the idea of Eric pretending to be married to someone else. She wasn't jealous; it just might not be safe - for Bethany. No, it definitely wouldn't be safe. After all Eric couldn't act and at least he and Nell spent so much time together they anticipated the other's actions which would minimise telling mistakes.

Nell took a moment to try and strengthen her walls. She had a feeling that while Eric seemed to have an art for getting her to lower them around him, the combination of Eric and Bethany would defy even the tensile strength of tungsten. Then she stepped forward to stand beside Eric, placing a hand on Bethany's back.

Looking at Hetty she nodded, signing herself up for what would probably be the hardest mission of her life.

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_**Thanks for reading! The next few chapters should be up quickly as a lot is written but in the editing process. I'd love to know what you think, good or bad.**_


	2. Welcome to Bakersfield

**AN: **Thank-you so much to everyone who has read, reviewed, favourited, alerted and followed, it was a lovely surprise in what has been a very long week – I hope you continue to enjoy it. Oh and if you're hoping for case information, sorry! It's coming in spades, but starting in the next chapter rather than this one.

**Disclaimer: ** NCIS and NCIS LA, sadly remain the property of CBS.  
I've also never been to any part of the state of California except LAX let alone Bakersfield so while I've done my best to research and as far as possible it is based on real statistics, places and companies it's quite probable I've made a few mistakes. To anyone associated, in any way, with Leo B. Hart Elementary School, I apologise unreservedly, Eric needed something to rant about and the state school ranking system seemed like a perfect opportunity.

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**Chapter 2 - Welcome to Bakersfield**

**.**

It was, Nell decided, quite different trying to create a false identity for yourself.

She and Eric created hundreds of false identities each year without batting an eyelid but knowing they were going to be actually living in this one had them dragging their heels and getting caught up on little things.

Eric had completely thrown her off balance by assuming they'd be taking her identity's last name and that his new identity would need a history under an unmarried-name because to be ordinary they needed to share a name. Nell wasn't sure what to think and Eric noticing her disquiet had tried to shove it back into the 'this isn't real so it doesn't matter anyway' box but once it'd been brought up she found herself keeping on going back to it. The topic had come up with each wedding of friends or family, which had been increasing in frequency as she transitioned from high school to college and college to work, the will she or won't she discussion managing to maintain its vigour despite the frequency of the event. Nell now realised that while she'd joined in the discussion and appreciated both sides of the name change debate she'd never actually figured out what she would do when she got married. On one hand she was very attached all seventeen letters of her current name and the history that went with it but she also really liked the symbol of having one name for the new family unit. Even though she knew they were both talking about a pretend marriage and they weren't actually invested in either identity, she was surprised and pleased by Eric's gesture. It did lift the burden of deciding off the woman and she did know one couple who'd done something similar. But the small part of her mind that remembered being a teenager automatically tried out 'Eric Jones' to see how it sounded. It was at this point Nell quickly decided there must be something else she could think about - anything else.

They ummed and arred trying to pick jobs that would allow for, and explain, any odd hours and were in fields which weren't their specialty but were within their abilities. Strangest of all they had almost had a real argument about what to call Bethany before realising it'd be a lot easier just to ask her. Bethany had, much to their relief, wanted something ordinary and after an adult like deliberation, had chosen Chloe. Nell and Eric were surprised to find they both really liked it. They'd worn themselves out trying to find something they agreed on and within a minute Bethany had done just that. Their new names had been equally difficult and had only been resolved by allowing each of them three vetoes. Eric had knocked out Katherine (it was too common and neither Kate nor Cathy suited Nell at all); he hated Genevieve but actually liked Sally, possibly because Sal had a similar feel to Nell when he said it. Nell pre-empted and knocked off James (as in James Bond), found herself dissing Michael (Mike just didn't fit) and Cameron made her think of chameleons (thanks to a pet of her roommate at college) or worse still James Cameron but they agreed on Marc.

In the end they'd decided it would be safer to make Chloe born two years earlier as anyone looking for her would be expecting a younger child of very high intelligence. If she was doing work two levels above she would be within the normal top section of the class, able to do advanced work without being even slightly remarkable. Any way of drawing less attention to her seemed preferable and they were more than capable of providing any additional support or challenge academically from home. This identity was, after all, temporary and it would give her a chance to experience a more normal schooling and if that was what she wanted they'd look at how to make a compromise that would minimise any disadvantage to her socially in her permanent identity. Nell still worried, as she guessed any parent would worry, about putting a six-year-old in with eight-year-old kids - but while she could be idealistic about what was 'correct developmentally' in the role of a parent, Eric had been right, she'd often wished someone could have done this for her. And early, like this, before she'd really understood that she was different from anyone else.

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Nell kept her eyes peeled for any sign that someone was following them as the US 101 became the CA 170 N, only occasionally flicking them back to the road ahead to aid in navigating the busy rush-hour traffic. While her eyes kept watch, her mind ran over all the reasons they'd ended up north bound for California's 9th largest inland city.

At close to 350,000 residents Bakersfield was a far cry from the bustle of Los Angeles' 3.79 million. But when you're trying to hide two adults and one child it was hard to go past the statistics which showed that in Bakersfield: 74.8% of all households are families, 62.5% of which had children under the age of 18, with an average household being 3.10 people and a rental vacancy rate of 9%. They'd both found jobs to apply for and tweaking their identity's qualifications and employment history had earned them swift responses. Eric, after just a brief phone interview, had been offered quite a senior position at one of the area's biggest employers. A fairly senior job was the perfect cover for moving in the middle of a school term and needing to set up house with so little notice. Not to mention Eric had found a public Elementary School which performed in the top 10% of the state on the API State Rank and a modest three bedroom house for rent just a few blocks away. Eric had claimed they needed a good school if they had any hope of hiding a genius in with the general population but Nell was pretty sure they still would have ended up with one of the state's best schools if Bethany had been of average intelligence. Eric might claim to know nothing about being a parent but the instinct was clearly there in spades. Even if it ended up being just a few weeks, nothing other than the top school would do for his child

Thinking of Eric had her eyes flicking to her mirror again to observe, not what the traffic behind her was doing, but the scene playing out in the backseat. Eric, who normally would have ridden shotgun with her, had compromised and was sitting in the middle seat in the back of the car. Putting Bethany behind Nell and between Eric and a locked door seemed safer than having her alone in the back; the middle seatbelt being least secure in a crash and sitting at either door alone seemed to be asking for a traditional child focused car jacking. His seat allowed him to be close enough to both Nell and Bethany in case something happened and all being well, would enable him monopolise Bethany's attention, freeing Nell up for spotting trouble - not to mention driving.

Eric certainly had Bethany's complete attention now. He'd discovered she liked making lists and word-games as well as her penchant for Sudokus and they were currently taking turns to name fruit and vegetables for each letter of the alphabet. Eric had started them off with apple, Bethany had quickly said banana, Eric had come back with carrot and they were off! Whenever Bethany got stuck Eric would pretend to think it was his turn, earning a mock scowl from Bethany who quickly took the next letter, glossing over the fact that technically now she was meant to think of a _second_ word which started with the letter Eric had butted in for. It was cute watching the banter between them and Nell even had a chance to add her two cents when both of them got stuck on X. She came to the rescue with 'Xigua' which she'd learnt was a melon when she and her little sister had played the game years ago and had the same problem.

Despite the happy scene playing out in the backseat, both she and Eric were holding their breath, waiting for the full extent of Bethany's loss to hit her. Bethany's parents were never coming back and while they knew Bethany understood death they hadn't seen any of the classic signs of grief except being worried when she didn't know where either Nell or Eric was. She'd been subdued and withdrawn with the rest of the team but seemed to have transferred her affection quite easily to the two of them and had been surprisingly willing to pretend they were her real parents. They, of course, had done everything they could think of to make it seem more like an elaborate game and perhaps that was helping suspend reality but Nell couldn't stop expecting, at any moment, for the other shoe to drop.

.

Being experts in planning they had developed contingency plans for their contingency plans; had examined every smash and grab scenario they'd ever used, heard or thought of and had their best deputies on point tracking the traffic cams for anything they could have missed. The whole team had been roped into ensuring the move went safely. Kensi and Deeks arrived first, late last night and after a quick recon of the house and yard, were on surveillance duty. Sam and Callen were driving the moving van and would arrive about five minutes after Eric, Nell & Bethany as thought they'd been following them. They had, in fact, all taken separate routes but Nell and Callen had been careful to continue on past the turn off to Bakersfield and double back so as to approach from the North as their cover listed their last address as being in Fresno.

Agents disguised as electricians fixing code violations in wiring in the ceiling insulation were installing cameras around Ronald Reagan Elementary School so that they could keep tabs on Bethany without needing to have a team protecting her at school. An agent had joined the janitor department so they'd always have someone on scene in case anything happened but because of the cameras they didn't need to keep her in sight. Eric and Nell had agreed that between them they would always walk her to and from school, minimising the time she was ever alone. In this area her apparent separation anxiety was a blessing in disguise as it offered the perfect justification for always having one of them around. The 'electricians' would also visit their new home; setting up cable tv (a satellite link), fixing broken outdoor lighting (installing cameras and sensors for the yard and perimeter) and inspecting the phone line (creating a second secure landline off the records). They'd decided it was unlikely anyone would notice if the 'electricians' also happened to change the locks on the doors and the windows, despite that clearly not being part of the normal job description of any sparky and completely against the policies of the rental agency. They'd put the original locks back in before they left so no-one was ever likely to be any the wiser and if they were, then it would be: Over Planning 1, Uninvited Visitor 0.

The house had been rented out as furnished which meant there were very few items other than boxes of possessions that needed to be unloaded, but in order to be convincing, they had a lot of them. Well, that and their den would double as a mini ops centre which required a lot of hardware, mostly to be hidden behind fake cupboards or inside perfectly functioning devices such as the plasma tv and surround sound system. With Sam and Callen's help they had gotten all the boxes unloaded and stacked in the room matching their contents within half an hour and after unpacking the box containing the coffee maker and the necessary equipment to make them each one, they spent an extra half an hour with the two agents going over some last minute undercover advice. Well, Callen and Sam tried to, whenever they could get a word in with Bethany chattering away incessantly to Eric _and_ Nell about everything which was cool about their new house.

Once they'd gone, Nell had left Eric to help Bethany unpack her new room while she tackled some of the main rooms of the house. They'd have plenty of time that evening, once Bethany had gone to bed and it was too late for friendly neighbours to drop in to welcome them to the street, to start the massive effort of setting up the Den so it looked to the casual, and the diligent observer to be nothing more than a space to relax with the added ability to function as a second office when necessary.

Nell had decided the best possible option was to sort out the living room first, seeing as they'd only been alone in the house for about 15 minutes before their first neighbour had dropped by to welcome them. Three hours later they had meet about six families and amassed: two casseroles, a Sheppard's pie, an apple pie, a breakfast basket and an enormous batch of choc-chip cookies. So it seemed like, now that they had the kettle and enough cups and plates out, what they really needed was just one finished room to sit the endless flow of visitors in. It turned out the neighbours had a fifteen-minute rule. There was a minimum of a fifteen-minute respite between the last lot leaving and the next ones arriving; just long enough to wash the cups and plates, refill the kettle and begin to relax before the doorbell rang again. After the fifth lot Nell had handed the dishcloth and instructions about the cups and plates to Eric and rushed to move the majority of the boxes out of the living room. She'd had just enough time to find the box she wanted before the sixth lot had arrived but now they'd left she had a plan.

Unpacking the smallest box marked 'living room' was proving to be the most surreal part of the entire ruse. Every family has photographs. It would have been extremely unusual, especially with a small child, not to have them dotted all around the house but they needed a focal point and the obvious place had been the living room. Nell wasn't sure if her problem was, quite simply, the fact that they were all fake or the more complex one, that they looked so real. They'd wisely outsourced the creation of them to another one of the techs working in Ops who had also provided a list of locations of each photo and guideline for creating a 'memory' to match. The three of them had posed in front of the green screen in a variety of combinations but had no control over how those images had been transformed. One of the most incredible things was how easy it was to pretend to be Bethany's biological parents. Her sandy blonde hair curled gently at the ends just like Eric's while you'd swear she'd inherited her hazel irises and delicate nose from Nell. Pulling the frames out one by one and laying them out on the coffee table Nell surveyed the collection of holidays, birthdays and everyday moments that had never actually happened. She felt an odd sense of loss for not having actually been there and had those moments. It was completely irrational but she couldn't shake it.

But by far the strangest photo was that of their 'wedding day'. All the rest, Nell could look at and see in her mind them laughing and joking as they'd posed in front of the green screen but it was impossible for her to see anything except the final image with that shot. She knew it was just a highly sophisticated blend of two sets of images. The people wearing the light grey suit and stunning ivory gown were not Eric or Nell, if Nell couldn't swear on oath she'd never worn that dress even she would have been fooled into believing that the heads were indeed, the originals rather than having been cleverly photoshopped and replaced with theirs. It was so convincing that she had a hard time battling down the little part of her brain which pointed out just how stunning they were as a couple and that it looked like a truly gorgeous wedding.

Trying to force her mind onto more logical and less emotional paths, Nell considered its creation. She had no idea when they'd even taken the photos they'd used of their faces because it definitely wasn't one of the staged ones. She was gazing up, with an unguarded joyful expression, while Eric looked down into her eyes, their hands entwined. Initially, her mind rebelling, she'd tried to convince herself they'd just airbrushed her hair and eye colour onto an existing face but she couldn't deny that she recognised the expression on Eric's face. She'd caught him looking at her like that a couple of times over the past year, the admiration and something she didn't want to name, clear in every line of his face. Which had her re-examining herself in the photo and had to admit the more she looked at it the harder it was to believe it had been airbrushed. She'd seen something similar in the background of one of Kensi's photos once, of her looking at Eric when she was out of his line of sight. It hadn't been in perfect focus but the expression was unmistakably one of admiration. Which returned her right back to the beginning, staring at the photograph and almost blushing at the intimacy of the look they gave one another.

"Seven minutes and counting." Eric announced as he strolled into the living room.

Nell hastily thrust the wedding photo onto the coffee table with the others and quickly delved back into the box for the last two. She could only hope that Eric hadn't been looking directly at her in the moment he crossed the threshold into the room and hadn't noted the blush she was currently fighting to control.

Feeling slightly helpless without her little sister, the decorator of the family, Nell started to arrange the photos on the mantle piece so she had an excuse to have her back partly turned to Eric as she made a somewhat bitchy remark about how their neighbours must have drawn lots for who got to visit at what time. Eric's soft laugh had a soothing effect on Nell's raw nerves from having almost been caught staring at the mock wedding photo. She relaxed to the point where she could turn and appeal to him for a second opinion about the balance of photos of just Chloe (they'd decided that as soon as they'd gotten in the car they could only use their aliases from that moment until they reached the end of the Op to minimise the chance they'd slip) and the family shots. Coming to stand beside her, he'd given his approval while disclaiming his lack of any ability in the decorating field. After a quick trial of combinations for the remaining three photos, the wedding shot had ended up on the side table off to the right of the sofa along with a photo of Chloe as a baby while the family shot had been lent against one of the dividers in the bookshelves awaiting hanging on the wall next to it. Nell stepped back to admire her handiwork just as the doorbell rang.

"Seriously?! Do we have to meet the _entire_ street today?" Nell asked acidly.

She didn't bother hiding her exhaustion from Eric as she tried to gather herself in preparation for going over their cover story yet again.

The feel of strong arms curling around her waist from behind had her momentarily tensing before she let out a sigh and leaned her head back on Eric's chest, allowing some of his limitless energy to seep into her. In some ways the charade of their relationship had been the easiest part of their cover, while they weren't necessarily used to the physical side of looking like a couple they predicted each other's actions and made no attempt to curb their tendency to finish each other's sentences.

"It's going to be fine, there's nothing this new housewife and her irritating children can do to ruffle the most incredible intelligence agent I've ever met." The words were murmured into her ear, his warm breath tickling the sensitive skin. She'd been trying to limit the chance of unnecessary physical contact but she had to admit that, right now, this is exactly what she needed. Giving the hands resting on her stomach a quick squeeze of appreciation she gently pulled away, before their visitor decided they were being rude or Chloe beat her to the door.

Nell was relieved on opening the door to find just the one woman in her early thirties standing on the porch. After the seemingly endless parade of the young children which made up third family to show up at her door it was a relief that this woman, for once, had left both her husband and any kids at home.

Callie Hetherington turned out to be a mother of two young girls, aged five and nine, but her husband had taken them to a dance class across town. After subtly slipping in that her family had only arrived six months before them, she'd hinted that even if the girls had been home she wouldn't have brought them, saying jovially it seemed less overwhelming to just come by herself first. Nell couldn't help but like her and rather than once again going over the story of why they'd moved to Bakersfield they'd had a relaxed chat about the perils of moving house and challenge of ever again finding things that you'd out away once you'd gotten tired and had tried to hurry up the seemingly endless task of unpacking boxes. Callie had even refused a cup of tea or coffee, much to their relief as they were quickly approaching cup ten for the day. Nell was genuinely sorry, for the first time that day, when Callie had said she had to be getting home so she would be there when her husband James dropped their youngest home before taking their eldest to basketball practice. The exchange of numbers and promises to catch up soon were eager rather than forced and even Chloe, who had been struggling with homesickness after the initial excitement of being in a new place and having her own room had worn off, had managed a smile and a nod. At the door Callie had taken a small wrapped packet out of her handbag and held it out to Nell.

"It just something really little but I found it made those first few days just a little bit more bearable." Callie had said before heading back out onto the porch with a brief wave and beginning a fast walk down the street. Nell watched her turn into the small yard of the house three doors to the east before gently closing the front door.

Curious, Nell opened the packet, Eric looking with interest over her shoulder. Inside a clear plastic bag were a collection chocolates in various sizes. Turning it over so she could read the label she laughed.

**- Magic Mix** **- **

_Everything from coffee beans to nuts to hard caramel dipped in rich milk chocolate.  
A pleasant surprise each time you put one in your mouth and a magic energy hit to  
keep spirits high in times of stress._

_._

It was a kooky idea but the lucky dip style, not to mention the chocolate, did have definite appeal and the three of them had all been grinning as they'd tried to guess, before biting into their selection, what it would be. None of them succeeded in predicting it. Nell got a nugget of nougat; Eric a coffee bean and Bethany had lucked into a caramel filled one. It was a surprisingly more relaxed group who headed back to the kitchen having proven that they had at least one sane neighbour in the street.

Their seventh set of visitors had Nell feeling like she was back in the time-loop but at the very least all the repetition was the best possible way to cement their cover story. The impeccably dressed couple and their reluctant looking son were almost creepy in the blandness of their personalities.

"You must be Sally and Marc Whitman," the woman had announced with a flourish as Nell opened the door. "I'm Helen, my husband Greg and our son is Norman - he's eleven."

Inwardly cursing the neighbourhood's fascination with starting the conversation by telling you your own name, Nell smiled and made the necessary welcoming remarks as she ushered them into the living room. Helen twittered on about how nice it was to have new neighbours, how nice this particular house was (although not as nice as _their_ house unfortunately, but Greg had done _so_ much work on it when they'd first moved in, he was _so _clever like that) and even managed to compliment Nell on how lovely Chloe was while simultaneously complementing her own son which Nell thought was actually quite an achievement in smoother-than-silk segways.

It was surprisingly easy to sit with Helen as all she required was the occasional nod and encouraging noise from Nell to continue to monopolise the entire conversation by posing questions and simply answering them on Nell's behalf with the knowledge she'd gleaned from one or more of their earlier guests. Nell would have been hard pressed to get a word in even if she'd wanted to. Luckily she had no desire to contribute to the conversation.

Greg on the other hand was grilling Eric. Having established not only: where they'd previously lived; where Eric had gone to college and his qualifications (the PhD in Environmental Conservation in Urban Developments from Cal Tech was clearly higher than Greg had expected) and where Eric had previously worked; he ploughed on to asking about his new job.

"I hear, Marc that you were headhunted to manage the new ecological preservation project at Aera Energy. Must have some pretty good contacts to get a role like that in one of the top employers in Bakersfield?"

Pushing down his irritation Eric did his best to make his answer respectful, by not pointing out it was an awful lot easier to get a job in an area with well under half a million residents than applying in one of the big cities, but also showed that he was no push over.

"Yes, we'd been looking to move somewhere more family oriented than Fresno now that Chloe is at school so when Professor Ryan Campbell, the Dean of Geological & Planetary Sciences at Cal Tech, called and said he'd recommended me for a job with one of the top oil companies in California I was thrilled. It's so important for these companies to give back to the environment and be involved in the local community."

Calling Aera Energy a 'top oil company' was inaccurate both: in the sense that it wasn't _that _large or influential; and in that 'oil company' was such a generic description it was completely misleading. But he could see Greg lapping it up and as Greg was unlikely to actually understand the specifics of either the company's role or size, relative to anything, there was no need to bother being accurate.

Greg looked a bit miffed at Eric's smooth answer, making Eric wonder if there was more to the jibe than just checking out the new guy on the block. He was very tempted to ask whether Greg also worked in the industry as he had a feeling that perhaps Greg had been hoping to get promoted to that job now that it'd been vacant for over a month. But he needn't have worried about whether to ask or not, Greg was only too happy to control the conversation.

"And I suppose you haven't thought about what your wife will do or where your daughter will go to school?"

Eric's dislike of Greg was increasing with every self-satisfied syllable that left his thin lips. He supposed he'd been spoilt working for so long at NCIS who had a clear 'no morons' policy. They'd discussed the issue of Nell working; weighing up the obvious downside of not being able to help out as much in Ops or watch-over Bethany as closely, with the prospect of having to join in the Housewife activities of the neighbourhood. Nell, despite knowing there were plenty of stay-at-home mothers who were perfectly sane, hadn't thought she'd be able to cope with the Housewife circuit all-day, everyday and they knew, in the current economic climate, it would be more realistic for Nell to at least be working part time, so they'd settled on working three days a week. Eric smiled good-naturedly as he assured Greg nothing could be further from the truth. If his answer came out sounding vaguely condescending towards his wife working, it was only because he was trying very hard not to let his expression reflect just what he thought of the man or to tell Greg to take his stupid family (Helen was no gem either) and get out of their house.

"Oh no, even though Sally doesn't really need to work its been good to have something meaningful to do during school hours so she's negotiating a contract at the moment. You know how it is, we want to be sure one of us will always be home to pick up Chloe and to take her in the mornings but that's the only thing holding up her taking a management role at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital. And we'd never move somewhere without first ensuring we'd found a good school for Chloe. She's enrolled in Ronald Reagan, which is why we chose this street. Couldn't believe my luck when I found a house in such a lovely street and just a few minutes walk from the school. I suppose you'll have some good tips on teachers and how the school runs as Norman must be in grade five or so?" Eric couldn't help but grin at the poorly disguised look of growing fury in Greg's eyes.

Helen, being well trained in the ability to listen to multiple conversations at any one time, butted in with a slightly forced laugh. "Oh no, Norman goes to Leo B. Hart Elementary School. After all, it's where Greg went and he turned out just _so_ clever."

"What a lovely history! But it's such a shame, I'm sure Chloe would have loved to have a familiar face at her new school." Nell chimed in; having a terrible feeling Eric wanted to put the poor woman straight on the facts of the matter as his eyebrows rose. She could almost hear Eric's likely diatribe on the subject in her mind: _Enrolling your child in a six out of ten API State Rank school when there were two much better schools within walking distance is plain irresponsible. Add Greg's odious demeanour and apparent lack of refinement and it does not, in any way, recommend Leo B Hart Elementary._

It was a relief, just a short time later, when Helen announced it was time for them to leave so that 'Sally could put the _delicious_ steak and kidney casserole,' that Helen had made, 'in the oven to heat up for dinner'.

Making a litany of false promises about staying in touch and doing just what Helen said about the casserole, Nell ushered the other family out of the house. It had felt like a hardship holding the door and waving until they'd identified which driveway Helen's little troupe turned into. Not that Helen hadn't already explained, in far too much detail, which house was theirs. They might not expect trouble from any of the people in the street, but they had to be on their guard.

"I hate steak and kidney and that man was nasty." Bethany said crossly.

Nell turned in surprise from shutting the door to look at Bethany, who'd been quiet all day. Bethany stood, hands on hips, between Eric and the front door as though prepared to defend him from Greg, should he return.

With a genuine smile Nell moved forward to put a kiss on the top of her head. "It's alright honey, we wouldn't eat it even if it was my favourite."

It seemed the most natural thing in the world when Eric swung Bethany up into his arms and settled her on his right hip for Nell take the extra step which would put her at his left side and for him to wrap his left arm over her shoulders. The walked together towards the kitchen; debating spiritedly, which of their numerous options, should become dinner and thinking of creative ways to destroy Helen's creation without damaging the china dish, which they would be expected to return.

.

The knowledge that she could get used to this had her pausing mid-breath, as though a vice had wrapped around her chest.

They hadn't even been in the house for a full twelve hours and already; Nell was finding it hard not to slip into the easy rhythm of family life. She wanted to say it was just because there was nothing she could do to help the team find Bethany's parents' killers, except play happy family and sell their cover to the neighbourhood. But where normally, she'd have been driven mad by the feeling of impotency, she was actually almost enjoying this life and she knew then, it was going to be very difficult to walk away from Bethany and Eric when all of this was over.

She knew she was capable of doing it. She'd done it before. She just wasn't sure what kind of scar it would leave behind when she did.


	3. No One Ever Said It Would Be Easy

**AN: **Sorry for the delay, work has an annoying habit of eating up all my time. Thank-you so much to everyone who has read, reviewed, favourited, alerted and followed. I'll do my best to respond individually to the reviews. I'm sorry about the over punctuation, it's a really bad habit from a combination of extremely strict english teachers and for work having to write for it to be read aloud where you use it to create pace and inflection. I've done my best to take it back to normal levels but the semicolons (;) I'm afraid you're stuck with, once you've learnt formal 'list grammar' it's very difficult to unlearn ;)

**Disclaimer: **NCIS and NCIS LA, sadly remain the property of CBS.

* * *

**Chapter 3 – No One Ever Said It Would Be Easy.**

**.**

Nell awoke to the unusual sensation of something tugging on the edge of her pillow and a small voice somewhere near her head. Groggy and disorientated it took her a moment to figure out what on earth was going on.

Bethany!

The flash of memory had Nell struggling to sit up, her heart racing. She put out a hand to switch on the light but encountered nothing but air. With a sigh she remembered they'd decided the bedside lamps could wait till tomorrow and lowered her hand until she touched the cool surface of the bedside table, then hunted around until she found her iPhone and selected the torch app. The light was harsh but between that and the cool air after the warmth of the covers it was enough to shake the last remnants of sleep from her brain.

"Chloe, Is everything okay?" Nell asked, genuinely concerned.

"Can I sleep with you?" Bethany's voice was small and she addressed the second half of her sentence to the floor. "I got scared when I woke up and I didn't know where I was and – and – I thought you'd gone."

Eric, who'd originally rolled over when Nell moved, seemed to be being dragged into wakefulness by the combination of light and voices. Sitting up and rubbing his eyes against the bright light before slipping on his glasses, he surveyed the scene; quickly taking in the rumpled covers, a weary Nell and the downcast figure of Bethany standing next to Nell's pillow. His mind dredged up enough of the conversation he'd heard, but not processed until now, and put two and two together just as Nell reached out a hand to Bethany, tipping her chin up gently.

"Of course you can sleep here Little One, there's lots of room."

Bethany's smile at Nell's soft words was radiant with relief bordering on joy.

"Climb up Munchkin, you can have the middle." Eric added, ready to help if she needed a hand. The bed was, for someone a good three-and-a-half-inches short of four-foot-tall, rather high off the ground.

From the depths of Nell's mind came some old parenting advice about not letting older children sleep with you; as she helped Bethany climb up onto the bed and across her into the middle between herself and Eric. The advisor, Nell thought ruefully had clearly never been assigned as temporary guardian to an incredibly intelligent six-year-old who'd lost both her parents, let alone tried sleeping in the same bed as her best friend who she was pretending to be married to and was just possibly really attracted to. She and Eric would have to talk about rigging some kind of monitor for Bethany's room, they got alerts on their phones if anyone tried to open a window or door to the outside or even just entered the yard but nothing to tell them if Bethany needed them. Most parents had months of crying to train them into waking at the slightest sound and Nell had the idea that none of the rest of the team would have missed any movement in the entire house but she and Eric weren't trained to be paranoid. They had checked Bethany was sleeping soundly and gone to bed secure in the knowledge the state-of-the-art sensors would alert them of any danger from the outside.

All in all, this way Nell figured she had some hope of going back to sleep.

Even with all the movement and distraction of settling Bethany in the middle, Nell knew it was going to be a lot easier to get to sleep than it had been when she and Eric had said their goodnights four hours ago. Nell had lain awake for what felt like hours.

Kept awake by: the unusual bed (she felt like she was melting into the mattress, which was nice but different); the unfamiliar sounds of the house (so much quieter than her apartment and rather than the sounds of people and traffic she was used to, the house had a soundscape of its own); the feeling that she was facing the wrong way (because her bed at home was oriented North rather than East); but most of all by the knowledge that if she reached behind her, her hand would collide with a very real Eric Beale. If she was honest, she'd have been asleep after ten minutes if it had been the bed, the house or the orientation, they were all part of normal holiday experiences. Eric did not usually come on her holidays. She could remind herself of all the reasons this was okay; they were best friends, she'd slept on his couch before, they were working, they were technically married – but it still didn't take away the awkwardness that had descended when they'd realised they couldn't put off going to bed any longer.

As if by mutual (awkward) agreement neither of them spoke as they made their way to the Master Bedroom, but if they had been chatting away normally they would have broken off when they passed through the doorway. The problem was glaringly obvious now that their focus wasn't on dumping the boxes marked 'bedroom' on their respective sides of the room and getting out as quickly as possible.

They needed to make their bed.

Just as earlier that day they'd put the Teddy bear's Picnic covers on Bethany's but making the bed they were going to share felt far more intimate.

"Sooo - ah - where'd we put the linen do you reckon?" Eric asked, addressing the room in general rather than looking at Nell.

With a quick scan on the possible boxes Nell zeroed in on a big box with 'pillows' written on the side closest to her.

"I'm thinking this one," Nell said making a beeline for it and bumping into Eric who'd obviously just spotted the same thing. _Great! Nell thought viciously. _They'd both been so busy not looking at one another they ended up colliding. Feeling her face rapidly going from pale to bright red, Nell hurriedly stepped sideways away from Eric and tripped over her duffle bag. _Just great_! In the split second of realising she was falling Nell resigned herself to making an even greater fool of herself but at least being a good foot further away from Eric so she couldn't make it a trifecta. But she hadn't factored in that while Eric was horrendous at all forms of coordinated exercise, he did have very quick reflexes and just possibly a vested interest in her safety. (Callen playing brother bear _might_ have said something about the hairs on her head remaining just so although Sam had pointed out it was Nell who had the gun.) So she found, rather than the hard floor rushing up to meet her, a pair of strong arms had pulled her back up and just for a moment her head had rested against the warm cotton of Eric's shirt. Clearing his throat Eric had moved to step back only for Nell to realise she'd unconsciously latched onto his belt with one hand - _to stop herself falling she rationalised_. She closed her eyes for a second feeling mortified, the phrase 'trifecta' echoing in her mind. She dropped her hand and slid her eyes open not daring to move in case she made it four in a row.

"How about I get the box and you clear a bit of space around the end of the bed so we can move it out from the wall enough so we don't get squished trying to do the top end," Eric offered.

"Right," Nell nodded sharply and, being sure to look where she was going, started to head for the pile of their stuff which was leaning against the end of the bed. "Oh and Eric -" she spun round to look at him and waited until he looked up, "Thanks." He'd smiled and they'd gotten to work - just like they did in ops, seamlessly anticipating the others moves and efficiently carrying out the task in-hand.

It had only been once the last corner was tucked in that the awareness was back. That their 'mission accomplished' was actually only the beginning of what was proving to be beyond awkward which was impressive because they specialised in awkward.

Eric had offered to go check on Bethany and use the bathroom down the hall if she wanted to take the ensuite and get ready. Knowing it was cowardly Nell latched onto his suggestion like a drowning swimmer being thrown a lifeline. With a smile of appreciation, she grabbed her night things, slipped quickly into the ensuite and shut the door. Remembering belatedly they hadn't gotten around to unpacking any of the bathroom things except the toilet paper, so her towel was back out in the bedroom, she jettisoned her initial idea of a quick shower and settled for washing her hands and face with warm water instead. She waited while she could hear Eric pulling things out of his bag and moving around the room. It wasn't until she heard the soft click of the bedroom door being shut that she quickly changed into her pyjamas and after delaying unnecessarily, had slowly opened the bathroom door. Having double-checked she was still alone, she ventured out. Stuffing her clothes back into the overnight bag of essentials before turning to face the bed which, despite the mess of half unpacked boxes, dominated the room. Blessing whatever star had convinced the owners to have a king-sized bed, she pulled back the covers and slipped into the side closest to the door, the same side of the room where the majority of her things were piled. Initially she'd wriggled around trying to get warm and comfortable but on hearing Eric's footsteps approaching she had decided to face the door, just in case he normally faced the middle, and had quickly shut her eyes and assumed what she hoped was a natural sleeping pose. With her eyes closed, she noticed Eric's steps were slower and more measured than usual. There was a pause and gentle knock as he reached the door and then, ever so slowly, the door opened.

It seemed like ages before Eric finally finished moving around the room and approached the far side of the bed. Nell tensed when the covers moved and the bed dipped, adjusting to his weight and didn't relax until he'd settled.

Nell had chosen to ignore the soft "Goodnight" he'd offered and it felt like eons before his breathing evened out and took on the deep rhythm of sleep. Only then did Nell feel like she could relax enough to try and sleep. But she hadn't counted on him being asleep not being enough to quiet her mind.

_What if she woke up, as she usually did, in the middle of the bed? Or worse still gravitated towards the closest heat source? Tonight had to be okay because they had no idea how long this ruse was going to have to continue. Then again, she wasn't sure how she'd cope if she spent hours pretending to sleep each night but then had to be on her guard all day? How did this all suddenly get so complicated? They were adults. Good friends. They were at work - well technically at work. But they had a small child. Not their biological child but, a pretend daughter - not that Bethany didn't exist because, she did and they had to protect her... And it's not like she and Eric had a thing or anything because that would make this impossible but, well she couldn't deny he liked her like that, but she... well, of course she liked him, they were friends but... Oh man, this was awful! _

Nell tried to calm her thoughts down; apparently she needed to be less tired to lie to herself properly. What she wanted was to be able to call her older sister. Bec had kids and while she didn't know Eric's real name or what either of them actually did, she always managed to understand about their friendship and if perhaps Nell had in a weak moment mentioned Nate's comment about trying to make Eric jealous or the way Eric always pointed out the flaws in any guy who looked her way, then it only aided her understanding. Because they were colleagues and friends and that was enough. Nell wondered what Bec's advice about Bethany would have been? Not that she and Eric were doing badly so far, it's just the idea of potentially screwing up when so many bad things had already happened to this one little girl was more scary than trying to foil a terror plot. She had so many skills and none of them seemed to help one little bit. Bec probably would be laughing at her by now. She could admit she was sounding paranoid. Thinking about it, Bec had been a bit of a train wreck when she'd gotten to the point where she could feel her baby move. The hormone-induced tears had flowed freely as she stressed about turning out to be a terrible mother. It had gone something along the lines of 'I was at this cafe and I really wanted a coffee and I know caffeine's bad for babies but I still really wanted it.' turned out she hadn't actually bought or drunk any coffee but apparently the craving was enough to condemn her forever. At the time, Nell had tried really hard to be sympathetic, to tell her that even a whole cup of coffee _everyday_ is actually perfectly fine, doctors just tell you none so you can't go off and drink ten cups a day and blame them. But that had only produced more tears and Nell, unable to cope with this new even more irrational argument as to why she would be a bad mother, had changed tack and tried to make her laugh instead. Pointing out that their grandma had smoked, drunk and worked her fingers to the bone not just right up until giving birth to each of her children but all their lives and her kids were just fine - well, except Uncle Arnold, he'd never stopped believing he was God's Gift to The World rather than the pompous arse he actually was, but that had probably been his schooling. After all, if you can't blame the parents, try the teachers next. Nell found herself smiling as she remembered them laughing so hard Bec had started hitting her, saying Nell was going to kill her poor, abused bladder if she kept this up. But it had worked. No more tears.

Calmer, as though she had actually spoken to Bec rather than just remembering, Nell finally she felt as though she was slipping into sleep, although that was probably sheer exhaustion.

Only to be woken again a short time later by Bethany's arrival at her bedside.

This time, with Bethany already fast asleep in the middle and the weight of tiredness still heavy, she drifted easily into sleep, untroubled by the other occupants.

.

.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

.

Nell awoke huddled on one side of the bed, the side closest to the door.

Cracking an eyelid open she was surprised; not only by the unusual view of a window seat with bright light peaking out around the floral but light resistant curtains, which meant she was definitely not at home but also by realising she was alone. At home she would have woken up in the middle of the bed and being alone would have been exactly the way it should have been. But here, she wasn't meant to be alone. When she'd gone to sleep there had been not one but two other people here with her.

The momentary panic, which she hoped was normal for all new parents, was broken by the sudden sound of laughter coming from somewhere inside the house. With a sigh of relief Nell recognised not only the higher tones of Bethany's giggles but also Eric's familiar laugh. They were okay. No one had broken into the house and murdered or kidnapped either of them.

On that happy thought, Nell tried to convince herself that, rather than just going back to sleep, she should actually A) figure out what time it was and B) get up regardless. Her opportunity to get up, find a towel and have a shower before hunting out the others disappeared with a clatter of running feet and the door being thrown open by a very excited Bethany.

"I made you breakfast! There's even pan-cakes! Well, actually Dad made you breakfast, but I helped." Bethany said in a rush as she climbed up and over Nell into the middle of the bed.

Nell couldn't help but smile back at look of sheer delight on Bethany's face and the gorgeous way she not only made pancakes into two words but had referred to Eric, who'd just reached the door, as Dad.

It'd been a tough call to ask Bethany to call them Mum and Dad so soon after her own parents died but she'd accepted their story that this was a game and because something bad had happened to her parents they needed to pretend they were a family until the bad people were caught. Nate, who'd been consulted via video link and had quite a chat to Bethany, thought that her acceptance of Eric and Nell so quickly had to do with a denial of reality and that she had, for all intents and purposes, already started thinking of them as her parents anyway - kind of like a motherless animal bonding with whoever fed and cared for them, regardless of species. He'd concluded this process wouldn't actually hurt her and would probably give her a bit of normality while she tried to process what had actually happened but had left a number to call if things started to look like they were going pear-shaped. He had, however cautioned Eric and Nell that it wasn't going to be easy, for any of them, when the game came to an end and they had to go back to the real world.

Eric, whose smile had increased by 100 watts on hearing Bethany call him Dad, swept into the room and deposited the enormous tray on the bed with a flourish.

"Ladies, I bring you the most delicious breakfast you'll ever eat."

Despite wanting to laugh at Eric's antics; having tried the blueberry pancakes, the lightly toasted pastries and been offered a top up on an already excellent coffee, not to mention having yet to put a single toe out of bed and a pair of laughing chefs to share it with, Nell was quite happy to admit this really was the best breakfast ever.

.

.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

.

It was much later that afternoon when Nell was finally able to escape parent duties long enough to go down to the Den and check-in with Ops. She was excited at the prospect of getting to speak to the team this time. Highly intelligent, adult conversations were seriously lacking in her current role. They were still in the semi-impersonal/inconsequential conversation stage with almost all of the neighbours they'd met and it needed to remain that way. Not that she couldn't chat to Eric, but Bethany still held the monopoly on his time and they were very reluctant to let her out of their sight for too long. It felt weird actually, checking in with Ops without her partner but then again, being out of ops was weird full stop.

She and Eric had gotten everything set up late the night before and had a long chat to Hetty and the techs running Ops in their absence, the rest of the team having long since gone home for the night. Hetty had, however, given a full update on the team's activities since arriving back from Bakersfield.

Callen and Sam had spent the day at Bethany's house trying to figure out what had been taken when the people who'd shot her parents had ransacked the place. Most of the technological devices were missing, which had local police initially thinking it was a robbery gone bad but to Callen and Sam it screamed Pros looking for one specific thing; creating all the mess and staging the thefts of things like the TV to make it seem like a robbery. As Sam put it: either two different sets of people had broken into the place or the first crew had tried to disguise their real purpose, there was no other explanation. The inconsistency of having each seam of the sofa sliced with surgical accuracy, the insides searched but then replaced and tucked back together as though untouched, compared to the chaos of the emptied drawers in the bedroom and books pulled off the bookshelf in the living room was enormous. Everything that was large enough to hide something the size of a folded piece of paper had been dissected and carefully rearranged to conceal this fact. Looking from the entrance to the living room it had been Callen who picked up the first hint of order in the areas of destruction, lending weight to Sam's theory about it being one crew. Every time something had been dumped on the floor or blatantly hacked to pieces it was the first thing you saw when you walked into the room. Not just because your eye was drawn to the destruction but also because it literally blocked either your entry to the room or your line of sight. Working on the theory that anything which had been dumped could be counted as a distraction only, they'd started to remove the debris, (putting it in boxes just in case it did turn out to be important later), and they started to see the true pattern emerging.

A set of smashed plates and the contents of a kitchen draw disguised a section of linoleum that had been removed and replaced. The coats pulled out of the cupboard in the hall covered a poorly re-packed box of old fashioned VHS cases, which when opened, turned out to all be empty. Desk draws had been left hanging open, their contents overflowing to disguise the signs of tampering on the locked bottom draw which had been neatly closed and relocked but proved empty upon opening. It was under the cascade of books in the living room they found blood spatter, suggesting at least one of Bethany's parents had been shot here in the living room before being taken outside. Sam was leaning to it being her father, who'd taken a bullet to the left knee shortly before the one between the eyes.

It had been the blood splatter that had prompted Hetty to again caution Nell and Eric about the dangers of being discovered. These people were organised and ruthless and for some reason, they were searching for Bethany.

Despite it already being after midnight, it was this warning that had driven Eric to refining the program he'd written in one of their fifteen-minute reprieves after learning that Ronald Reagan Elementary used an identity card system and took photos of each student. Originally it had been a Trojan designed specifically prevent anyone outside the school from accessing the student logs and when Chloe's profile was created it would be hidden from all but admin access, showing instead a phony profile which contained an entirely different photo and address not to mention just about every other detail. In the highly unlikely case that anyone picked up the error, it had been done in such a way to make it look, to a moderately skilled tech, like a section of bad code that was swapping out the information. Eric had strengthened the original protections, set up alerts which would notify them of anyone trying to access any part of the school's network without permission and created a virtual firewall inside the existing one (which any low-grade hacker could have destroyed in under three seconds) that would give them at least an hour's warning of any serious attempt to access the school's information. Nell, meanwhile had created bogus profiles under names like Elizabeth and Mary-Beth and variants of Madeleine, which was Bethany's real middle name, for six-year-old girls starting at a myriad of schools two to five days after Bethany's parents had died, all over California. If they went looking at the actual school they'd find an awful lot of little girls with the right first name but none with the right combination of first and last names to match the online profile let alone Bethany's face. Which, on past behaviour, would be enough to protect them from whomever was after the real Bethany. Borrowing some of Eric's code she'd made it so that these profiles could only be found by hacking the system, the school's mainframe had no record of them. She'd been amazed to find four genuine something-Beths and a Madeleine who'd started in the right week in LA, San Francisco, Long Beach and San Diego. She set up alerts on each girl's profile, making a reminder to take them off when the case was done, so that they'd at least know if anyone went looking for those girls by mistake.

Kensi and Deeks, in contrast had been wading through the reports written by and including mention of Bethany's parents who'd worked in the OSP in fairly low-level analyst positions. They were trying to pick up clues as to which people or organisations they would have had enough information about to be even remotely possible targets. So far, it was a very short list. Her mother had specialised in cryptography, while her father had worked in the secondary tech team up in Ops when they needed around-the-clock monitoring, which is how Eric remembered him mentioning his daughter Bethany on one of their long hauls. According to people around the office who knew them, you couldn't find two more ordinary people. All they really seemed to care about was their work and their daughter - who had been remembered as being called everything from Elizabeth to Courtney but never Bethany. Proving Kensi's theory about just how little attention was paid to personal lives correct and prompting Hetty to flag the people who hadn't managed to come close to the name Bethany for Eric to run when he got back, to see if they were that inaccurate in the rest of their work.

This afternoon, Nell hoped for some good news.

Surely the team had found something which linked Bethany's parents to something to explain why they'd been murdered and why, after Bethany's parents' deaths there had been enquires made at Bethany's school and after-school-activities about her whereabouts. Each time, the person fielding the call had been too vague to remember anything about the calls, just that it seemed odd. But it had been the kidnapping attempt of a little girl who looked very similar to Bethany outside Bethany's school which had sent NCIS OSP onto high alert and Nell and Eric to Bakersfield.

Safe houses had been discussed but given that NCIS staff had been gunned down in their home and the father possibly tortured, Hetty wasn't prepared to discount the possibility that there was someone inside NCIS was involved.

What Nell got, in the scant ten-minutes before the door bell (which Nell had learned to hate with a passion) tolled yet again and she was forced to wrap up her chat with Hetty, was that 'Plans were in motion' to ensure there was no-one looking for any of them and that they'd have to wait a few more days until it was safe to start digging deeper.

* * *

_**Thank-you for reading!**_


	4. Looking for a Bird's-eye View

**AN: **I'm back, sorry for keeping you all waiting so long! The Christmas craziness seems to have caught up with me much earlier this year.

**Disclaimer: **NCIS and NCIS LA, sadly remain the property of CBS.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Looking for a Bird's-eye View**

**.**

"On your right you'll be able to see the general classrooms for our youngest members of the school..."

With Bethany's little hand held tight in hers, Nell tried to focus on what the principal was telling them as they followed him down the main hallway of Ronald Reagan Elementary. To his credit the school _was_ exceptional, the classrooms they could see glimpses of on either side were modern and the teachers animated. The only problem with the tour was that they already knew every possible fact about the school and had done a virtual walk-through based on camera feeds they had rigged all around the school. She was quite happy pretending like she was seeing all of this for the first time but while Bethany had skipped along between Eric and Nell on the way here, now she was dragging her little white shoes like they were made of lead rather than leather.

Glancing up, Nell meet Eric's eyes over Bethany's head - so he'd noticed too.

Eric raised an eyebrow, nodded to Bethany and tipped his chin up - silently asking _'Should I pick her up? Put her up on my shoulders?'_

With little more than a flick of her eyes to Principal Mathers and a tilt of her head she shot back _'Reckon he'll have an issue with it? She's probably expected to walk on her own.'_

The slight hitch of one shoulder and the beginnings of the grin he got whenever they went close to pushing the boundaries had Nell smiling in reply - Principal Mather's rules had nothing on Hetty's. With a nod she set out to orchestrate the necessary stop. They were just approaching an intersection of hallways.

"Principal Mathers, just a moment - " Nell interrupted, realising belatedly she probably should have paused a moment to re-catch the thread of the principal's monologue which had been going in one ear and out the other.

"Yes, Mrs Whitman?" The principal turned, smoothly transitioning from monologue to dialogue while keeping the hierarchical upper hand. They had stopped almost exactly in the middle of the junction between hallways.

Glad she'd memorised the floor plan, Nell motioned left knowing full well what she wanted was in fact to the right. "Would it be this way to get to the science classrooms? I know Chloe would especially like to see those, Marc - my husband - is an environmental scientist you see."

"You have science rooms?" Chloe piped up, innocent to the scheme but playing her part beautifully.

"We have three laboratory spaces," Mathers began grandly, ready to set off in a new direction if it meant a little more interest from the group, "almost correct Mrs Whitman but to your _right, _now if we just take this junction -_" _

"Is it far - my feet are tired." Bethany cut in plaintively, tugging on the hands of Eric and Nell which she gripped tightly in her own, keeping them strung together in a little line.

Biting back a smile that Bethany was in fact doing exactly what she had been trying to arrange, all without premeditation, Nell kept quiet. She was used to communicating silently with Eric but there was something incredibly amusing about the three of them ganging up on the principal without him being any the wiser. She felt like there should be high fives all round once his back was turned again.

"Well it's not _very_ far young lady -" The principal began kindly but clearly ready to follow up with the firm 'march on' orders.

"Are those new shoes hurting your feet Munchkin?" Eric put in quickly, crouching down next to Bethany. "How about I put you on my shoulders till we get to the science rooms and we'll see if that's enough rest for them."

The smile and bubbling laughter more than compensated for Nell's hand being ditched in the rush to accept what had become one of Bethany's favourite past times.

"Well, I don't know about - " Mathers tried to get a word in over Bethany's excited chatter but seemed to realise compromise was his only real option with Bethany already being lifted up onto Eric's shoulders. "Well, off we go then. Now the science rooms were built just last year, really quite advanced if I do say so myself..."

You had to admire his aplomb, but Nell guessed there wouldn't be much that could faze a principal who'd worked his way up the ranks in some pretty rough schools before getting the top job here and this way his audience were all too ready to listen. Well, _mostly _ready. Bethany had just started to whisper (not very quietly) into Eric ear something about not being able to hold hands from up there.

"And what year levels do classes in the science laboratories?" Nell asked trying to fill the small gap in the monologue so he wouldn't be as aware of Bethany's chattering.

"We believe," Mathers began, using the Royal 'we' when it was almost certainly his idea, "that an introduction to basic science early is part of the reason so many of our students go on to achieve offers for Ivy League Colleges. With the exception of the Kindergarten, safe and fun basic science is introduced into all the younger levels, while our senior students take on introduction classes to all the mainstream science disciplines to prepare them for middle school."

Nell was impressed, no wonder this school ranked so highly. She was about to say so when Eric, who'd been moving closer and closer in her peripheral vision, chatting quietly to Bethany wrapped an arm across her shoulders and pulled her gently into his side. Glancing up she met the conspiratorial smiles of her little family, apparently if Bethany couldn't hold her hand then she at least needed to be attached to Eric, there would be no breaking this chain. Smiling Nell relaxed into Eric's side, looping her arm around his waist to anchor herself in place - if you can't beat them, you may as well enjoy joining them.

In spite of the height difference, Nell didn't feel dwarfed by the position the way she usually did. If anything it made her feel like an equal partner with both of them making subtle adjustments so they moved as one; she lengthened her stride and Eric shortened his and they found that middle ground as naturally as if they'd always done it. In a way, she guessed they had been developing a similar pace for the past couple of years but never with the added challenge of actually being joined at the hip. What surprised her the most was that she felt safe. All those barriers she usually felt like she needed, all the training that had her carving out a path of her own, needing to be in control - somehow felt muted and stranger still - she kind of liked it. She was still a million miles from becoming passive but she just felt like she didn't need to fight to be acknowledged, she wasn't talking but she was part of the conversation.

It was Eric who then took over engaging with principal Mathers, allowing Nell to admire how far Eric had come in being able to confidently express himself outside Ops. She envied how easily he'd slipped into the role of father and husband. Not that he didn't still crack the occasional off beat joke (it was funny how his jokes had always been worthy of the title 'dad jokes' Nell just hadn't recognised it till now) and he could still get himself into a right tangle of words but they were both so aware of it that they usually had it untangled before whoever they were talking to even noticed. It had created a slight reticence in the way he spoke sometimes but most significantly, he was no longer so shy around her and that had solved most of the problem.

They made it through 60% of the tour before Nell got the urgent alert on her phone. They'd agreed, because of her job at the hospital, when they were together it was just her phone which would display the coded alert message. Eric could still access his through what looked like a second email app.

The group had paused midsentence at the two-tone beep which cut through the relative quiet of the empty playground like a knife.

"You'll have to excuse me Principal Mathers, I work in Resource Management for Bakersfield Memorial Hospital and that will be an important page." Nell said, trying to keep calm and sound apologetic.

The message read:

URGENT: CONTACT RADIOLOGY DEPARTMENT, SUPPORT REQUIRED.

Had Eric not been standing next to her, able to read the message himself, she would have continued to say to Mathers that there must be trouble with allocating resources in radiology - perhaps even a break down in a key imaging device and she was required to help coordinate the remaining resources to ensure all patients received what they needed. All of which Eric would understand to mean surveillance had picked up a mid-level threat they needed to know about. Not at the house because otherwise the warning would say CAUTION not 'urgent' and her Instergram App (which Eric had hijacked for their surveillance feeds) would have an exclamation mark badge in red, orange or yellow depending on the threat level.

Nell, who'd removed her right arm from Eric's waist to fish out her phone now put it away and extended her hand to Mathers.

"Thank you so much for the tour Principal Mathers, I must go but I'm sure Marc and Chloe will have plenty of questions for you." His handshake was firm and he wished her a safe and productive return to work.

Nell turned to Bethany, who had gotten down from Eric's shoulders once they were outside and had contented herself with holding Eric's hand as she looked eagerly at the play equipment.

"Bye Chloe. Be good, I'll be home as soon as I'm done at work." A pair of thin arms wrapped vice-like around her middle in a fervent goodbye hug and Nell was sad to see an unusual shininess in Chloe's eyes as she gently kissed her forehead before pulling away.

In light of their audience, Nell reached up to give Eric a swift kiss as well. She'd been aiming for his cheek but given their height difference Eric had bent his head as well and somehow it was his lips that had met hers. It was over almost as soon as it had begun but that didn't stop Nell's mind cataloguing and filing the sensations away for examination later. Part of her wished she could lean in, clarify the fleeting impression of heat but logic and circumstance won-out. Trying not to react in surprise or blush, Nell pulled away a fraction more slowly than she would have liked and it was only rigid self control which had her saying in even tones that she'd let him know if she was likely to be stuck at work long. Eric had nodded and been able to camouflage his surprise with a sudden need to comfort Bethany who had moved to stand so that she was almost entirely hidden behind him as soon as Nell had pulled away from her hug. With her fingers latched onto his back pocket and just her head poking round so she could still see Nell and the Principal, Bethany looked incredibly cute and suddenly shy.

"Don't worry Mrs Whitman, she'll be quite safe here."

Nell flashed a smile at Mathers, sending a silent thanks that separation anxiety would be only too familiar to an elementary teacher and with a final, general "Goodbye" she departed.

.

.

The walk home from school was considerably quicker without Bethany but Nell missed the chatter and excitement that transformed ordinary, everyday things like clouds and people and cars into the props and characters in fairy tales. It was hard, now that she'd gotten into Bethany's favourite game not to invent stories each time she saw something new or different. The postman after all could actually be a prince who had been exiled from his kingdom and was working to save enough money to go looking for the rest of his family who'd been separated as they fled the country they lived in. As she neared their house Nell noticed the blind across the street twitch and a shadow recede - the ghost of a little girl? A suburban batman keeping watch?

Keeping Watch! Cursing her distraction, Nell switched back to NCIS OSP mode, all thoughts of make believe forced to the back of her mind as the possibilities started clicking into place. If there was one thing which could be said for suburbia it was that Neighbourhood Watch was alive and well. The grapevine here was as advanced as some of the intelligence networks Nell analysed which meant she had to assume that someone would take note that she left the tour early, she was thankful in hindsight that she hadn't said exactly why she needed to leave but it had been implied it was something important at work. Luckily in Resource Management, the department she'd started working in, they could always use an extra hand and there were literally hundreds of crisis ranging from minor to catastrophic every week. She decided that at most she had 15 minutes before it would be newsworthy, to have "rushed home" and then taken "forever" to get changed and actually go to work. On her side was their decision when they moved in to leave the front bedroom as a "guest room" and take the bedrooms nearer the back of the house which didn't have windows facing the street.

Glad also that she'd always been the kind of person that could, when necessary: wake up, get dressed, grab breakfast and leave the house in well under ten minutes, Nell set about planning her mad dash as she walked calmly up her front path and without haste unlocked the front door. As soon as the door closed behind her Nell started the timer on her watch and was rushing down the hall making a beeline for her bedroom, pulling off her jacket and unbuttoning her shirt as she went. The shoes came off as she passed through the door and she was pulling on her work shirt and switching jeans for black pants as soon as she reached the chair she was using as a stand for the clothes she wore to work. Grabbing her security tag, upside down watch, keys and real pager from the locked drawer and snatching up her incredibly comfortable but unattractive black work shoes she made a dash for the den.

Glancing at her watch (11-minutes) Nell shut the door to the den and set up the connection to Ops, slipping into shoes, attaching her work paraphernalia to her belt and the watch to her shirt.

"Looks like you're not having any trouble adapting to life as a working mum?"

Nell's eyes snapped back to the screen to see Callen leaning, arms crossed, against the Ops island having obviously been waiting to brief her. Fighting the blush threatening to wash over her she opened her mouth for a whity rejoinder but was piped to the post by Sam stepping into her field of vision from somewhere off screen to the left.

"Suits you. You might want to re-think the hair style though, half clipped doesn't quite convey the uber organised look you've got going on."

"Oh, ah - right."

Nell paused realising that she'd completely forgotten about the butterfly clip which had gotten tangled when she'd pulled on her work shirt without undoing the buttons. Sighing she got to work untangling. She was constantly irritated by the clip because she was forever forgetting the hair extensions that had been a last minute addition to her cover. Luckily they'd been done by a hairdresser so she couldn't actually take them out and totally forget about them but all the reasons she preferred her pixie cut were being reinforced on an hourly basis.

"So, what have you got for me? I've only got about 8 minutes before I need to be seen exiting the house." Nell asked having at least gotten the clip out without ripping out half her hair. An unseen tech set a 7-minute countdown in the top right hand corner of the screen just as she would have done if she'd been there.

"Right, we'll give you the cliff notes version - you or Eric will check back in tonight?" Callen paused just long enough for Nell to nod before ploughing on, "About an hour ago we got a hit on your early warning system that shows searches in school databases. Might be nothing but just before the red flag search was logged, there was an _Internal Search_ at the same school - Tenth Street Elementary in West LA."

"Key words of the red flag search?" Nell asked, trying not to think of the worst-case scenario.

"Female, grade 1 or 2 and Beth with asterisks."

"And the internal search?"

"Same plus, 'top 10 percentile'."

"Any other flags or just this one school?"

"Just the one." Sam chipped in as Nell fought the urge to pace. It was so frustrating being stuck here and not able to access all the data herself.

"You want to see the log thing?" Callen asked, perceptive as always.

Nell was sure her relief was visible as the screen switched so that Callen and Sam were minimised to just the top left part of the screen and the rest showed the stats she'd been dying to see.

Scanning the log quickly Nell's heart rate started to ease back out of hyperdrive. The keywords for the red flag search had been less aggressive and skilful than the summary suggested. Both searches had actually been denied full results by the system, simply confirming that females in grades 1 & 2 made up 60% of the top 10 percentile in academic achievements and citing permission from level coordinators was necessary to access full results.

"You've got techs running down the IP address?" Nell asked, aware a full minute had been spent breaking down what she could see.

"Came from the public library just next to the school, Kensi and Deeks are headed there now but the techs say there's almost no chance they'd still be there. We're hoping they at least pick up a few possible IDs to track down, people leaving in a hurry after the searches."

Sighing, Nell had to agree, no one would stick around after two failed attempts. Conscious that she and Callen seemed to have swapped roles temporarily and that he was, as a consequence, expecting instructions from her, Nell did her best to gather her thoughts. As nice as it was to have a break from spending every minute with Eric, she missed having him to bounce ideas off and the ebb and flow of finishing each other's sentences.

"We'll run a full check on the system from this end tonight, for now we'll treat it as a low level threat to us but look forward to an update on what Kensi and Deeks dig up. Doesn't sound like the attempt was very well planned or highly skilled which should give us the advantage."

"Right. We'll keep working other angles then if you're sure we shouldn't be doing more?" Callen said, pushing off the island, ready to move out.

"No, I think we may have just gotten lucky this time that they hadn't thought it through. I don't think they've learned anything even slightly helpful while we've gotten a peek at their game plan."

"Time for you to go to work then, show the local folk how to run an op." Callen said with a sardonic smile.

"You watch your backs all the same." Sam threw in as the clock at the top of the screen flashed orange, the countdown hitting 60 seconds.

And then, they were gone.

.

.

Nell noticed the curtain flick as she reversed out of the driveway and wondered what Miranda across the street would have to say about their little family.

She was willing to bet at least one of her "darling" neighbours had been trying to figure out how old she was based on Chloe being eight despite the combined efforts of Hetty and Kensi. It had been Kensi who'd hit on the brilliant idea of basing the outfits on the photos of her older sister who managed to look 28 despite her petite frame. Out went all of Nell's favourite little dresses, cardigans and flats and into the suitcases went jeans, tailored pants, shirts and sundresses. But it was the hair extensions, Hetty's stroke of genius, which had finally had Nell believing she could pull off pretending to be five-and-a-half years older than she was. So far no one had asked but Nell felt like she was just waiting for to no longer be considered so new that the women at least made the show of reticence. Had they asked Nell would have said they'd fallen pregnant when she was 19 and that Chloe had been born just two months before she turned 20 which skated neatly around all of the obvious legal issues there would be if Nell had given her real age and said she'd had Chloe eight years ago. She was curious what they would have to say about Eric as well. He too was suffering through having to leave all his own clothes at home having swapped board shorts and t-shirts for suits and ties or at best jeans and a casual shirt. The job at Aera Energy had at least gotten the respect of the other guys straight away where as Nell felt like she was behind to start with, having apparently never learnt the art of carrying on pointless conversations about nothing in particular while always being on the look out for hidden barbs. But at least she had an ally and friend in Callie who, in contrast to all the other women, seemed completely against all the parading and sucking up and lead an incredibly normal life as far as Nell could tell. She'd miss her when they had to leave and she couldn't help hoping they'd have a chance to say goodbye properly even though she knew that when it was time they'd probably just have to move out as quietly as the could. A family emergency? They'd rush off and a few weeks later they'd send someone to pack up the house, people would talk but she and Eric were already planting subtle seeds about Marc's father being very ill and the question of who'd run the family business when the inevitable happened.

Her musings got her as far as the front entrance of Bakersfield Memorial Hospital before the tightly wound energy and constant action of the busy Accident & Emergency Department drowned out her thoughts. Moving through the ordered chaos towards the wards and beyond that the control centre she worked in, Nell could already see multiple patients on gurneys stuck halfway between the wards and the A&E waiting to be allocated a more permanent bed. As she pushed open the heavy doors and walked on down the long corridor she quickly realised why they were waiting, a ten-bed ward that normally housed overflow was dark and abandoned. With renewed energy Nell made for the control centre, they may not have put out an urgent alert but it looked like they could definitely use another hand. Somehow she didn't think she'd be home much before dinner time and wished belatedly she'd had a chance to grab lunch on her way out of the house - once she took up her desk it was quite similar to ops in that whole swaths of time could disappear irrespective of conventions like meal times.

But she'd make sure she was home for dinner, which was one time she and Eric tried to keep as normal as they could. And after years of working at NCIS OSP it had been strange for both of them to always be home and eating dinner at 6.30pm but now, not only was she starting to get hungry about 6pm but she looked forward to it and to them spending time together as a family.

.

.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

.

"It was weird, right, being back in the hallways of a school."

Eric's words broke the comfortable silence that had descended over the room they'd started to think of as The Library. Calling it a room was probably a stretch, it was a semi-partitioned off nook just a short way past the breakfast bar which formed the outer border of the large kitchen. Most likely it had been intended as a traditional breakfast nook but had taken on a new role at some point after the kitchen had been remodelled. The wall had been extended to cover all except a door-sized gap and bookshelves had been built-in on three sides, the remaining side having been cleverly fitted out with a couch, where Eric and Nell now lounged, after-Bethany's-bedtime-coffee in hand.

She was surprised in a way, that he'd mentioned it. They hadn't spoken much while they'd taken the various tours, met with the requisite staff and been taken to see Bethany's new class in action. Well, they had asked every question they could think of which might relate to Bethany's schooling but there'd been no discussion of how it had affected either of them to be back there. But they'd both known the other was on edge.

"Yeah, it was." Nell admitted warily, the temptation to fall back into the habit of subtly rubbing her right upper incisor against its lower counterpart surprisingly strong, even after all this time. It had been an unconscious way of controlling her agitation through the early years of school up until a dentist had explained she'd worn the point off both teeth and given the placement of the teeth, it was probably emotional stress not genuine Bruxism. Rather than a splint he'd suggested a psychologist. Her mother had been quite incensed and Nell had been offered a new dentist and as gently as possible told that her mother would always listen if she needed. Nell, being pragmatic even at thirteen, opted to keep the dentist and hadn't had high hopes for the psychologist but decided to go all the same.

"I never really felt like I could answer the question of whether I liked school truthfully. I enjoyed the work, the new things I'd never even considered before but I can't say I would have missed of anyone except the occasional brilliant teacher if I'd had to leave before I finished. I had friends but often that was more out of convenience than anything else. You needed a group, so I went and found one." Eric continued his apathy just a touch affected.

"I was there to learn and I'm afraid I didn't have much time for the dramas which seemed to monopolise the rest of the students." The matter-of-fact mantra she'd learned to live by came out almost automatically, having lost none of its bluntness in the intervening years.

Eric's raised eyebrow had a slight blush rising on her cheeks. He knew a stonewall when he heard one but he didn't push. She was glad he hadn't made the all too common allusion to Hermione, she loved and identified with the character but it was rarely meant as a compliment. Reminding herself, this was Eric, she tried again.

"I pretty much knew from the outset that I didn't fit in. I could do things other kids weren't up to yet, I answered too many questions, I started to use words they didn't understand - and I just didn't like the things they expected me to." Nell paused for a mouthful of coffee, some of the old tension starting to build behind her eyes, the migraines which had plagued her in high school apparently not as far gone as she'd assumed. It seemed easier to address the next part to her coffee mug.

"Later they let me take classes above my own level but in an effort to help me fit in better, the careers woman decided that while I was going to do a year's work per semester in most classes I would stay in the lower class all year. It meant answering questions aloud which were completely different to what I actually spent the class doing and even the most distracted class members noticed my papers never looked exactly the same as theirs when it was time to do the tests."

"But you got out early, right?" Eric's asked plaintively. His hand, which had been hovering tentatively just shy of her shoulder, compromised by resting on the couch close enough for her to feel the heat but with just his thumb crossing the border, tracing mesmerizingly soft strokes back and forth across her skin.

Nell tried to hang on to the agitation of her memories, to keep up that barrier which protected her from the world but the anxiety was dulled further and further with each gentle stroke and the memories she usually can't bear anyone to know about seem to _want _to be shared. That tiny patch of skin that keeps them connected soothing scars that never really healed.

"Yeah, I did finals just after my sixteenth birthday." She's surprised to find she can look into his eyes and continue. "It should have felt like I'd been set free but by then I was so focused on getting through College, on getting into the work force because there, surely no one would ask why my birth date was wrong. No one would question whether my timetable had been switched, no one would care whether I could do things they couldn't - they would have employed me _because_ I could do them. Looking back it made me the perfect intelligence recruit; very few close friends, no desire to be part of the broader community, introspective -"

"Highly intelligent -" Eric soft words cut into her cold, rational explanation and went on overriding it gaining assurance despite remaining soft, " - motivated, perceptive. Being dislocated or sidelined, it made you easier to convince but they don't recruit people without genuine talent into intelligence. Some other fields - definitely, but not intelligence. They would have tried to recruit _you_ even if you were the most well known person on campus."

Telling herself that what Eric had said was no different from anyone else pointing it out, that they were just facts, didn't dampen the warm glow his words had produced. Compliments from Eric were often sweeter because they generally started out backwards (no one was exactly keen to be called dislocated from society) and then went so far beyond the generic to compensate.

"Once I had the intelligence work to focus on, well - I guess it just moved the goal posts. I found this place where they wanted me to be different and would push me to not just use what I already understood but figure out what I didn't know and how to learn it. It felt like -" Nell paused, already having exposed more of her vulnerabilities than she had to anyone ever and reluctant to take that next leap of faith.

"You'd found home?"

"Yeah, it felt like I was exactly where I was meant to be." Nell let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding. It should have been unnerving to find out that the one thing she'd hoped he'd never see was something he already knew and understood but she couldn't help smiling.

Part of her wanted to stay here, testing this fragile connection that made the past look just that little bit different, to see whether as the night wore on his whole hand would cross that line - if his arm would shift to rest over her shoulders like it had when they were at the school that morning. She wondered whether his hand could make tingles run down her spine the way it had when he'd started to play with her hair earlier in the week. They'd been sitting on a picnic rug watching Bethany slowly start to play with the local kids during their 'meet the neighbouring kids' mass play-date at the local park when one of the single dads had gotten particularly over attentive towards Nell and Eric had set about trying to get him to back off. She was pretty sure he had no idea that she hadn't just been playing along when she'd lent back against his shoulder and tipped her chin up to give him better access to the mass of tight muscles at the base of her skull. She'd always admired the skill of those hands on keyboards and working with the delicate circuit boards of the latest trashed device they needed to resuscitate but she didn't think she'd ever be able to look at them quite the same now that she knew they were also had the power to reduce her to a puddle of mush just by threading their way through her hair.

But, having brought up intelligence work, her mind slowly kicked back into gear. Reluctantly Nell moved to get up off the couch, putting a hand out to take Eric's coffee mug.

"We'd better get started on those systems and I think the team is expecting to hear from us at 9pm so that only leaves an hour to have an update ready for them."

"I can start setting everything up if you're right to get more coffee and grab the Oreos? I moved them out of the Den and into the pantry when Bethany was playing in the Den earlier, turns out we've got a budding cookie monster on our hands." Eric barely missed a beat although you could see his uncertainty about the sudden change from talking about the past to rushing back to work.

Nell got halfway to the pantry before turning back.

"Wait."

Eric stopped just outside the door to the kitchen and came back.

Acting on impulse Nell crossed the kitchen to stand in front of him. Resting a hand on his shoulder for support and reaching up on her toes, she pressed a kiss to his cheek. Her lips encountering warm skin and the faintest prickle of his 5-o'clock-shadow - another sensation she knew her lips would struggle to forget.

"Thank-you. I hadn't realised how hard it would be to be back in a school so like the one I went to, but it didn't seem so bad with you there beside me and telling you about it - it felt good." Her words came out softer than they'd been intended as she stepped back and let her hand fall back to her side.

As little as a week ago, she wouldn't in a million years have done something as brash as kiss Eric on the cheek. But somewhere in-between all the casual touches which gave the impression of intimacy, sharing the responsibility of looking after Bethany and sleeping on opposite sides of the same bed each night, she'd lost the warning sign that had always stopped thoughts becoming actions. It wasn't that she'd never considered hugging Eric; it was just never an option to actually do it.

As she watched Eric's tongue slip out to wet suddenly dry lips, she found herself struggling to remember all the reasons why they hadn't and shouldn't ever cross that invisible line.

"Always."

With one, slightly incongruous word that meant everything and nothing at the same time and a shy smile to match the soft flush that was creeping up his neck, Nell knew they'd never be able to leave here and go back to exactly the way it had been before. She wasn't even sure that going back to that was what she wanted anyway.

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_**Thank-you for reading! Please review, I'd love to know what you think.**_


	5. Going Round in Circles

**AN**: Merry Christmas and the happiest wishes to all the families of other faiths, Sorry this is short but I'm still working on the chapter to follow. Thankyou all for reading and to all the 'guest' reviewers – I can't thankyou personally unless you get an account (...accounts are kinda good…) but I do appreciate all your support!

**Disclaimer: **Still not mine, sigh!

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**Chapter 5: Going Round in Circles**

"See Deeks, I told you Eric would be there. Now can we please stop with the conspiracies about Nell having murdered him?" Kensi wasn't looking at the screen but turned to face Deeks, obviously sick to death of whatever 'theory' Deeks had been peddling.

"Given what it was like when they first had to share ops, it wasn't that unlikely to get pretty nasty trying to share a house let alone bed -" Deeks wasn't backing down either, he looked like he was ready to start reiterating all his main points. And that was something Nell was incredibly keen _not _to have to hear. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Eric tense at the word 'bed'. This is exactly why they hadn't ever both been on screen here. Well, actually it was more that they needed one person with Bethany always during the day and Eric often had to bring work home to be able to be home for dinner so usually Ops check-ins had been Nell's responsibility but still...

Sam and Callen looked quite happy to stand back and enjoy the show, alternating between looking at the ones with the wedding rings and the ones without. Sam looked downright smug making Nell wonder if he and Callen had a bet going that somehow played into it, she wouldn't put it past either of them.

"Uh - Guys?!" Nell and Eric interrupted in unison, trying hard not to look at one another.

"We're right here -" Eric began before Nell took over, "- and we can hear you."

Kensi and Deeks, despite the fact their argument had been _about_ Eric and Nell looked surprised to be interrupted by them.

"Did you end up getting any possibles for the red flag at the Library in West LA?" Nell asked, barrelling on in the hope of permanently scuttling the topic of relations in the Whitman household, especially those involving beds. The rest of the team might prod and joke about that kind of stuff but she wasn't sure she and Eric were really at that stage yet - hell they we're just getting to the point where it felt comfortable and the definitely didn't need Deeks putting them back into defensive mode.

"Nadda. Turns out there are three exits to the library, hundreds of people coming and going all the time and all the cameras we malfunctioning for the past two days."

Deeks' account pretty much summed up what Nell and Eric had expected. In all ways except the technology, it had felt quite well planned. The busy location and multiple exits confirmed it.

"So now they know the school firewalls are more impressive than expected, what's their next move?" Eric's question hadn't been aimed at anyone but Callen took it.

"Did anything unusual show up in your system check?"

"Well," Eric started, lifting a shoulder in a noncommittally, "lots of low level activity but it's hard to filter out the relevant stuff when it comes to internal searches and there were five separate attempted hacks -"

"- but they just look like kids trying to change grades -" Nell chipped in, their normal habits of only ever speaking in half sentences returning.

"And all of the IPs were traced back to houses with one or more students at the school involved."

"So basically you've got nothing either?" Deeks chimed in, increasing Nell's impatience with him.

"Well -" Nell tried to think of a single positive thing that had come out of an hour of intense work and failed. They had nothing, just as the rest of the team had nothing.

"So our crack Ops team have mysteriously become less - uh, crack - and I'm the only one wondering if maybe that's because they're distracted?" Deeks sing-song tone had Nell grinding her teeth in earnest but it was Eric who spoke up.

With a surprisingly quick step forward Eric twisted his iPad so he held it with just one hand and turned on its side so it was pointing like a blade at Deeks. "If you're insinuating that Nell and I aren't working our buts off to solve this case, your wrong. Difference is, we also have a six-year-old to look after and we're both working a second, totally unrelated job so if you expect us to be able to do our same 'crack' work then you'd better stop being an ass and get out there and find us some leads because right now, the only leads we've got to work from come from the system Nell and I created."

Nell felt like cheering as Deeks, Kensi, Callen and Sam stood in stunned silence at Eric's reprimand. She was ridiculously proud that he'd stood up for her, for them - and there was something sweet about being able to put Deeks in his place for once.

Callen recovered first, his nod acknowledging both of them. "Fair enough. We're missing something -" he looked to Sam, Kensi and Deeks, "let's get to work. We'll report back when we've got something new."

Kensi, who'd looked uncomfortable throughout Eric's mini tirade, nodded too. "Deeks and I will go back to the original files - somewhere there's a link which explains why these people still need Bethany having already killed her parents."

"Sam and I will go back to Bethany's school. We never figured out why, if they wanted Bethany they didn't just take her from there and if we can figure out that we might know why they shot her father once before the fatal shot."

"Let's do it." For once, Deeks didn't have a suggestive comment to throw out as he and Kensi moved to get back to work.

"I think that boardroom's doing you good, Eric. Just try not to practice on Hetty." Sam's off beat sense of humour (and the compliment) broke the remaining tension and even Eric had to laugh.

With a chorus of goodbyes and assurances the team at the Mission would be back with some answers, Nell & Eric found themselves alone again.

"Nicely done."

Eric turned at Nell's comment, grinning as their hands met in their customary low-five.

"Deeks was way outta line. Not that you need defending you're perfectly able. I mean you're the one with the gun. Not that he was suggesting that - and it's not like you would actually murder me, right?"

Laughing Nell tried to figure out what to answer first, with Eric there were always so many options when he got nervous and started rambling.

"You know Deeks was just trying to get a rise out of you? But you totally smashed it so it kinda backfired on him. And despite having a gun, and the training to use it - you're still safe with me Wolfram."

Smiling at Eric's stunned expression, Nell went back to packing up the remains of Oreos and coffee. They'd never mentioned that moment at the security firm again but clearly it was as ingrained in Eric's mind as it was in hers. She hadn't even meant to bring it up; it just slipped out with the mention of her gun and wiped the shyly pleased look right off Eric's face.

"We'd better get to bed then."

"Pardon?" Nell swung back round to face Eric who was now redder than Santa's pants.

"I meant, now that we're all done here we should sleep - uh, that Chloe is asleep and it's late and we're tired so -" Eric, if possible was getting even redder and shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he continued to dig himself into a hole.

"We need to both get some sleep so we'll be ready for Chloe's last day before school?" Nell finally came to his rescue before he accidentally said something he couldn't take back.

"Right. So, uh, if you're good here I'm - I'm going to go check on Chloe."

Biting her lip so she wouldn't succumb to the laugher that was bubbling up inside her, Nell nodded and redoubled her cleaning efforts. After a pause, she heard Eric leave. She wondered what it would be like without all the uncertainty, if it was just them and there was no work to do, whether - but there was work and Bethany and she needed to remember that. That she couldn't wonder if this feeling was real. Now was all that mattered.

Sighing, Nell headed for the dishwasher, flicking the den lights off and moving through the dark house towards the kitchen. This was the only place aside from her parents' house that she walked though in the dark. Even though her apartment was tiny she still ended up with a trail of lights following her movements but somehow, already she felt like she knew this place. Brushing her hand lightly along the wall of the passage, Nell thought about her parents and wondered what it would be like to have a home they could come and visit. They'd love that, they were always saying they'd love to see where she lived and Nell was constantly having to put them off – as far as they knew she was renovating a house and that living in a shoe-box size apartment was just temporary. With the GFC and them knowing how hard she worked it was somehow possible that she'd managed to stretch these renovations out to over two years. She'd actually found a house that was being renovated in San Diego and because that family had a Flickr dedicated to their 'Reno Updates' she'd been dolling the pictures out in small portions every couple of months. The real house was finished long ago but Nell would string it out as long as she could. Even though she knew she shouldn't even think it, she wished this house in Bakersfield and Bethany and Eric were hers. Wished that all her family would be able to come visit, maybe even that she'd be able to host Christmas now her parents were getting older. Even just being able to be with them for Christmas one year - it all felt like so long ago when the concept of not being home for Christmas had been unimaginable.

She used to be the person most excited about Christmas coming, which is saying something in a family that had Christmas sweaters and more Christmas decorations than their ten-foot tree and collection of smaller trees could handle. Each year her mum had made them each a pair of Christmas decorations to go in their collection so that when they moved out they'd have enough to start their own Christmas tree. And every year since, at nineteen she'd missed her first Christmas, a package would arrive with two more and a video message from the family.

She hadn't even realised she'd stopped moving till the sound of footsteps behind her broke the hold her memories and wishes had on her. Turning she was thankful for the dark as she could feel her eyes had welled up with unshed tears.

"Chloe's asleep but I can take those to the kitchen if you want to go in and say goodnight?"

She didn't know how he knew not to ask why she was still standing in the middle of the hall but the softness of his voice showed that he'd noticed she hadn't just stopped to gaze into space.

"Thanks but - uh, you go have first run at our bathroom. I'll dump these in the kitchen and pop in on Chloe on my way back."

"If you're sure?" Nell could hear the indecision in his voice, even though he didn't press her for answers.

"Yeah, I'm sure - I'll be there soon." And Nell was surprised to realise she actually was okay. Somehow, with nothing more than a question about household things he'd driven away the tears that had been threatening to fall. She hated crying but Christmas was one of those things that tipped her over the edge every single time and usually once she'd started there was no stopping them actually falling.

"Alright, don't linger too long." And with a nod, he reluctantly turned back the way he'd come.

Leaving Nell trying to figure out when he'd gotten to be able to read her so well? And if he could sense that, what else was she no longer able to hide?

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**Thanks again & Happy Holidays!**


	6. The Way The Cookie Crumbles

**A/N: **Thankyou to everyone who has been reading, following and reviewing, I hope to get a chance to sit down and thankyou personally. I apologise this update didn't come as quickly as I had planned, a close family member got sick after Christmas and has been in hospital ever since so I haven't had a lot of time or energy to spare. I hope you all had a wonderful start to the year and thanks again for your support.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own NCIS or NCIS LA but I stake full claim over Bethany.

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**Chapter 6: The Way The Cookie Crumbles**

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Nell was surprised to see Kensi standing alone in Ops when, having confirmed the coast was clear, she found herself on the wrong side of the Ops big screen yet again. It was still strange looking from the position of the big screen, over the Island towards the Ops doors. She wanted to be standing, iPad in hand, on the other side - directing the action rather than playing a starring role.

Having exchanged greetings and Nell had done her best to dodge Kensi's questions about how she was enjoying shaking up with Eric and her instant mother status, Nell got Kensi onto the important stuff. After all, having survived the first week of frequent visits from neighbours and the endless task of entertaining a six-year-old, Nell had learnt to value the momentary reprieves but not to count on their duration being great.

"The rest of NCIS OSP seem to have swallowed, hook-line-and-sinker that you and Eric have been sent to Washington to assist Vance while Ops is being upgraded with a new security protocol - there was a very complicated email that did explain it better than that. (Nell nodded, she'd written it herself.) They're all crowded into the back-up Ops (Nell winced in sympathy, it was the size of a broom-closet in comparison to the real one) and whatever Eric did to trick them into believing this one is down has kept even the most dedicated and diligent Techs from offering to assist in the upgrade. We've got the two Techs you vetted working here on this case but so far they aren't having much luck."

Nell sighed. This really was quite an elaborate set up but she had the feeling behind-the-scenes Hetty had a second game in play. No doubt looking for how anyone could have found out where her staff lived and where their daughter went to school.

"Did they buy the memorial service?" Nell asked, knowing this part was key to the success of keeping the three of them out of danger.

"I've got no idea how Hetty managed to find _three_ small blonde girls of the right age who all had the right hair but looked quite different and stage the sightings at the service and the wake but the three different cars which they appeared to be bundled into by relatives were all followed quite rigorously until they each slipped their tails on separate busy roads. And because we were down to skeleton staff on the day Bethany was here, it was quite easy for the rumour to be spread that had not only was she a brunette and closer to eleven, but that she'd been related to Hetty and no-one in their right mind would be heard asking questions about something which was Hetty's."

"Quite right Ms Blye." Hetty said, managing to sneak up on both of them (yet again). The Ops doors hadn't opened, making Nell surmise they must be using the emergency exit which, up until now, had been a secret kept between Hetty and Eric. It had surprised her to discover Eric had kept a secret from her, but she had a feeling he actually thought Hetty had told her and so had seen no reason to break silence on a tightly controlled issue.

Kensi, who'd visibly jumped at Hetty's remark, gave Nell a somewhat agitated look as they waited for Hetty to continue.

"You'll be pleased to hear we're making progress." Hetty began, the pause just a little longer than was normally used between sentences, as though daring the unsuspecting to try and help her along (Nell had, in her early days, fallen foul of that particular technique but today she kept quiet) and Hetty, having indicated she had complete control of the conversation chose then to continue. "Mr Hana found what is believed to be a blackmail letter late yesterday tucked into one of Bethany's books from school. We're still trying to verify the exact translation of it - you will, I hope, have better luck than the first team - but it seems as though harm against their daughter was being used to motivate them to disclose information."

Nell's heart started racing. She might not be Bethany's biological mother but at some point during this charade Bethany had gone from being just part of her work to now being prepared to protect her with her last breath because she didn't want to lose her.

"Callen thinks Bethany may in-fact be safe due to the school bus returning her class from an excursion to the Natural History Museum being delayed over two hours after one of the children wandered off and got lost. Some _genius_," Hetty's emphasis implying strong disapproval, "put the rest of the children into an 90-minute film on dinosaurs which, when the lost child had been found, was allowed to run on until it's end because they were studying dinosaurs in a few weeks. This put them into the middle of peak school pick-up traffic, which accounts for the trip taking twice as long as it otherwise would have. When the bus returned and _still_ neither parent could be contacted they entrusted Bethany to another mother (another decision Hetty clearly disliked) while they rang the emergency number her parents had listed, which was answered by our cover department. The record that both parents had left over three hours before, prompted a team to be sent to the family home where both parent's cells listed their last signals had come from. On finding the devastation and the two deceased, I was brought in. It is further surmised that had Bethany returned on time, what happened to her parents may have played out differently. Her parents genuinely didn't know where she was but if she was leverage or indeed the aim of the whole exercise it may have led to their deaths if the perpetrator thought they'd been exposed."

Nell bit down hard on the inside of her cheek. It was terrible to look at the events in that light; where Bethany could have been exchanged for her parents. Nell wanted to believe that, while Bethany's parents were not agents, they would have protected her to their last breaths, perhaps even capitalised on them not being able to find her. But there was something at the edge of her mind, which made her doubt it had been that simple, that Bethany's parents had been completely innocent in the lead up to their attack.

"So where does that leave us?" Nell asked, trying to keep her voice from betraying her all too real fear that, while it was Bethany's parents who'd died, they could no longer claim she wasn't the real target.

"In hiding." Hetty said with her usual abruptness.

"You'll at least let us have the note Sam found?" Nell asked, hating how hard it was to be here and not sitting in her chair at Ops, already starting the cryptanalysis program she'd written.

"Yes, you'll be able to get it from the fancy digital in-tray you set up once we're done here. But I believe you'll need to be thinking about preparing Bethany for her first real day at school tomorrow, and making dinner." Hetty said, a lightness tinging her tone as she took in Nell's eagerness to be back in control of at least one element of this case.

Nell sighed. They'd taken a tour of the school, met teachers, spoken to the other parents in the street and done their best to make Bethany comfortable but tomorrow was D-Day. Monday meant they ran out of excuses to keep her home 'just one more day' and while Bethany had grudgingly coped with Eric going to work last week, Nell had the feeling she wasn't keen on the concept of not being with either of them. Nell had also decided that they'd branch out and have something that wasn't one of their neighbour's offerings tonight, which meant they needed to actually cook rather than just re-heat their dinner. How Hetty had known they needed to cook tonight was a mystery - like always.

"Deeks and I are chasing down a couple of discrepancies in one of her dad's last reports but nothing solid yet." Kensi offered, re-entering the conversation as Hetty made no move to extend her remark after Nell had clearly resigned herself to not being able to work on the note just yet. "Looks like we'll need to go over the early ones again with a fine tooth comb, in the report in question there are three discrepancies which seems unusually high -"

There was a red light that clicked on at the top of the TV, next to the inbuilt but well disguised webcam, which signalled someone was approaching the Den and seven-seconds until the transmission cut out and the tv would return to being just an ordinary tv. Kensi stopped mid-sentence. Nell nodded, slipped her blue-tooth headset out of her ear and swiftly sat down on the couch she was standing in front of, just as the connection terminated and a program on American Wildlife filled the space where Kensi had been.

The door, which automatically unlocked as soon as the transmission cut, was opened five seconds later by Eric and a morose looking Bethany.

"You're back early. Did it rain at the park?" Nell asked trying to sound calm while imagining the worst. _Maybe she had a mothering instinct after all?_

"We - uh - had a bit of a problem with a couple of the other kids." Eric sounded uncomfortable but neither he nor Bethany were panicking so she tried hold in her curiosity while they slowly got to the point.

"Wasn't my fault."

Nell raised her eyebrows at Bethany's belligerence, which was peeking though more now Bethany was settled making Nell wonder if they'd been experiencing a 'honeymoon period'. If that concept even existed with temporary adoption let alone one with this level of façade?

Crossing her arms across her chest Bethany continued, "We were just playing and then He says 'I can't play anymore 'cos they were gunna play Cops and Robbers and I was a girl so I couldn't have a gun like a cop and girls don't do crimes so therefore I couldn't play.' -" Bethany stopped to take a big breath, she seemed to have a thing against pausing and her solution was to talk as fast as she could for as long as each breath lasted then gulp in air before starting again.

Nell bit her lip and tried her hardest not to smile, she had a feeling she knew where this was going.

"So I said 'girls do the best crimes and make the best police 'cos we're smarted and guns can't tell if you a girl or a boy so that was a stupid reason not to let me play' - "

Not exactly what you wanted the new kid on the block to come out with but you had to admire her spunk.

"- and he says, 'well you're stupid because girls can't fight and they cry and you have to be able to fight and not cry to be any good at this game' so I shoved him into the bush to see if he'd cry."

Nell's jaw dropped and her eyes flew to Eric's in shock. The argument was the same world over when kids start to differentiate between boys' games and girls' games but shoving this kid into a bush? She hadn't seen that coming.

"Cried like a baby." Bethany added with satisfaction in the moment of silence before Nell managed an answer to the first part.

_And what, was she supposed to say to that?! _Nell felt totally out of her depth and before she had a chance to say anything Eric's took up the tale.

"So the other little boy, Kevin, shoves Chloe but she manages to stay standing and it first it looks like he's just walking away but then he turns and using the distance as a run up goes in for a tackle - and ends up flat on his back with one slick move from our little ninja. You can imagine the calamity, I seem to have been the only one who actually saw Chloe shove Justin into the bush - the other parents only looked up when Justin started crying, in time to see Kevin attack Chloe."

"Kevin's dad started yelling; first at Justin saying it was his fault for falling over, then at Kevin for trying to hit me -" Bethany added, sounding like she was enjoying the story's retelling.

"So I grabbed Chloe, let Justin's dad apologise for the trouble saying he was sure it was all a misunderstanding -"

"Justin tried to tell his dad that I'd pushed him and he got real angry at Justin for lying -" Bethany cut in again helpfully.

"They were completely ignoring us by then so we left them to it and came home." Eric said looking rather sheepish.

"But I remembered to bring home my jacket like you told me."

Nell sighed. They'd had a pretty good run, almost a whole week without needing to raise their voices let alone apply any kind of disciplinary measures which, if her nieces and nephews could be used as a yard stick, was quite impressive. Her bother looked pleased at making it through a whole meal of peace with his two boys.

"Alright, how about both of you come sit on the couch with me and we'll talk about it." Nell said, hoping she sounded authoritative when she was actually just trying to buy herself some time. Bethany waited till Eric sat down then climbed up onto his lap and Nell wondered whether this was going to turn into her against the two of them but, to her surprise once they were all settled it was Eric who started.

"Now we know that Justin was mean to you today and that he shouldn't have said you weren't allowed to play with them anymore but it's not okay to push people when they make you angry."

"I know -" Bethany sighed, her little shoulders hunching in as she stared down into her lap.

Eric looked at Nell in distress seeing his little girl looking so defeated. With a nod to Eric, Nell put two fingers under Bethany's chin and gently tilted it up so Bethany was looking at her.

"However, what Kevin did was horrid and it's okay to defend yourself. Even though you were angry, once Kevin was on the ground you didn't retaliate -" Nell paused seeing Bethany's face which had been softening, suddenly frown at the word 'retaliate' and remembering that, despite her IQ, she was still six "- you didn't hurt him when he was on the ground."

"That wouldn't be fair, he couldn't fight back." Bethany put in, her expression serious.

"Exactly." Eric said pulling Bethany into a hug, "We don't fight unless we have to - unless someone attacks us or someone needs help and we definitely don't fight if the other person can't fight back."

"Are you going to send me away?" There was a sniffle and Bethany buried her head in Eric's shirt, her words quiet and muffled.

Nell's heart felt like it was being torn apart and looking at Eric she could see he wasn't coping any better. They knew they couldn't say they'd never leave her. They knew this wasn't forever but at some point it had stopped feeling like an undercover Op and this little girl had started to mean everything to them. And their little girl needed them to say it was all going to be okay, Nell could see her little chest rising and falling unevenly as she tried not to cry. Wishing she could do more, Nell shuffled over so that she could wrap an arm around each of them, making a little family huddle.

"There's nothing, absolutely nothing you could do that would make us send you away for being naughty." Nell whispered, her hand rubbing soothing circles across Bethany's back. She wished she could just leave it there as Bethany's little hand reached out and wound around her neck, holding Nell close. Looking into Eric's eyes, she bit the inside of her cheek hoping the pain would get her through without crying.

"We're still hiding from the bad men, pretending to be Marc and Sally and Chloe to keep you safe but that won't last forever. When its safe and the bad men are gone you'll be able to go back to your relatives but if you ever need us, we will always come. Always and forever, if you need us." Nell couldn't stop the single, silent tear that rolled down her cheek.

"And we'll always love you, no matter what." Eric said, drawing them all closer together: Nell's head resting on his shoulder, Bethany's against his chest.

"I love you too." Bethany whispered.

Four simple words could make a heart swell. Could put you on top of the world but this time - this time as Bethany's breaths slowed and her hand slackened as sleep swept in, Nell thought her heart was breaking. She didn't know how much Bethany understood but she envied her peaceful sleep, looking so safe and warm - so trusting that so long as they loved her, everything would be okay. Nell couldn't help thinking of the photos she'd seen of the last people who'd loved Bethany, proof that sometimes love wasn't enough. She couldn't help thinking of Callen and the foster homes and the cold detachment of someone who'd loved and lost so many times without finding a loving family who would make him their own - could these distant relatives really be the loving, caring parents for a young child they barely knew?

"It'll be okay," Eric's soft whisper broke though Nell's despairing thoughts, "we'll make sure nothing bad ever happens to her, I promise."

"I know. It's just -" Nell's reply was barely audible, her throat closing as though blocked by a real lump rather than the grips of fear and grief for the little girl they had wrapped securely in their arms.

"We're not the first to promise."

Nell could feel the energy leaching out of him as he said it, admitting out loud what she'd been too cowardly to finish. Bracing herself she looked up, preparing for the desolation which must be shining in her eyes to be mirrored in his. Instead she saw a steely determination rising with his incoming breath.

"But they weren't us. They didn't have Hetty, Callen, Sam, Kensi and Deeks. Between us we will get to the bottom of this. And I won't let anything to either of you."

Looking into his eyes she could feel her own determination rising, the conviction behind his words posing the challenge needed to reignite hers, the knowledge that if there was something to find they would find it asserting itself. And pride in Eric, not known for his courage, who was stepping forward to meet this head on without their normal shield of being behind the scenes.

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Her lunch had been made, her dress ironed and shoes shined, her hair braided and adorned with a bow, her books sorted, her bag packed and repacked and now, finally it was time to go.

Nell looked back anxiously at the house as they made their way up the stone path leading from their front door to the sidewalk and wondered what they'd forgotten. There was a GPS tracker sown into Bethany's dress pocket and another in her shoe, she had a silent alarm and a list of emergency contacts, she had money to buy a treat if she wanted something sweet at lunch time...

Nell tried to calm down and remind herself that she and Eric did this for a living; preparing people to go into new environments with all the tools and back up they needed and they were some of the best in the field too.

For all her worry, Bethany was skipping along between them, full of excitement about learning new things as Eric did his best to remind her that she actually really enjoyed school. He'd found out from her teacher they would be starting to learn about Egypt this week and was busy painting a picture of hot, dry deserts, towering pyramids, kings and queens surrounded by gold and jewels and a language formed out of symbols rather than letters making Bethany's eyes sparkle as she tried to get him to tell her more. Nell knew it would be different when they got to her classroom and she realised that math problems, story time and ancient cultures only happened once all the parents had gone to work or home but it didn't stop her joy at being able to return at least one pillar of normality to Bethany's life.

Sure enough, Bethany dug her heels in when she realised it was time to say goodbye. Her lip trembled as Eric knelt down to give her a hug.

"I don't have to come to school to learn about Eeegput, not when you already know so much - you could teach me couldn't you? You don't have to go Daddy, I could go to work with you couldn't I or - or I could go to the hospital with Mum?"

She clung to Eric like a limpet, refusing to let go when he went to pull away - trying desperately to make them stay or take her home. Nell struggled to hold her nerve when it was her turn to be clung to and gently ease away as hot tears rolled down Bethany's cheeks. She forced herself to breathe, running through what Nate had told them about separation anxiety like a chant and trying to make herself positive, calm and encouraging as they transferred Bethany to the waiting arms of the teaching assistant and promised they'd be back, waiting for her just outside this door when school was over.

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"You touch that ring a lot, Sally."

Miranda's silken criticism cut through what had been an exceptionally dull conversation about Helen's son Norman's _excellence _at - well Nell wasn't actually sure what, she'd tuned out after the fifth minute of not getting to the point despite wading through seemingly endless ineloquent fluff. Instead Nell had been thinking about Bethany, hoping she was doing okay at school for her first day and hoping she'd finally get a chance to bring Eric up to date on the case tonight having spent the whole evening before with Bethany.

And now she'd been caught.

"No - well, I fidget but doesn't mean anything." Nell wasn't exactly why she'd wound up on the defensive, there was nothing particularly bad in Miranda's comment but it _felt _like a leading question. Like she was supposed to confess something about her marriage being in dire straights the way they were always doing in Kensi's favourite Reality Housewives TV or whatever it was called.

"Are things different now Marc's got this high powered job and Chloe's got new friends? Well of course," Miranda laughed which sounded about as happy as nails scraping down a chalk board, "you have us now, but is everything okay home Sally?"

_Seriously?! _Nell tried to bottle her inner rage. She'd spent eight hours over three separate luncheons and suddenly it all felt like it had been about getting her to this place and time. It was like the classic high school play book move: befriend the ugly duckling, make them feel part of the group, entrench hierarchy, make them feel safe and BOOM! humiliate them to maximum effect. Preferably in a place they've previously felt in control or protected. First it had been lunch at Helen's place, then Miranda's and now, with Nell having been forced into hosting, the claws had come out. Too bad she wasn't Sally Whitman and having a husband working at Aera Energy wasn't what she considered 'high powered' nor was she threatened by the idea of her daughter having made friends, she was _happy _about that like they were meant to be. _Calm Down. You haven't been gushing about how amazing your family is, the way these women do, that's suspicious. No need to go all Arch Angel on them, just pretend to be submissive and it will all be okay. _Nell knew the perfect start to her reply would be to laugh lightly but she couldn't. She just couldn't do it. So she thought of how surprised Miranda would be if she knew Nell was actually working undercover for the government and managed to smile.

"Oh, that's so sweet of you Miranda. No, no everything's great I just - we're so new and your families are all _so _interesting I didn't think you'd be interested in something so little as my family."

Nell did her best to tune out to the twittering responses of the women being "interested". If she channelled her inner sarcasm but dressed it in butter-would-melt-in-this-innocence she could almost enjoy this sudden focus on her. _Almost._

"All this talk of how well your kids are doing, well, it just makes me glad we came here. Living in the city, in Fresno - it was great and I loved working there and Marc loved working there but - we wanted something more. We wanted a strong community and a good, local school for Chloe, so she'll grow up surrounded by excellence." Nell was watching their faces, the glow of self-righteous admiration for living in Grand Lakes Avenue, Bakersfield beaming out of every one of them - except Miranda. Miranda had wanted to stir up trouble and Nell had dodged it, worse she'd gotten all the women on side.

"Is that why you two have waited so long before having another child? Hadn't found your oasis yet? I mean Chloe's nine and your biological clock must be ticking even though you started so early. Just how old were you when you had her?"

_Wow. Not a problem in your marriage? Well why aren't you pumping out kids? Bringing up the biological clock that was just low, and the not so subtle follow up with the age question! Man she'd love to put this queen bee in her place. _Having mentally ranted Nell felt just that tiny bit calmer, or maybe that was the feel of the warm metal of her wedding band as she turned it on her finger - she really needed to break that habit or she'd miss it when she had to give it back to Hetty. She was glad now they'd gone to the extent of doing the mental arithmetic necessary to make Sally's birth date feasible with Chloe's being eight. Remembering the 'cross-examination training' she'd had with Kensi pretending to be a housewitch got her the genuine soft laugh she needed right now.

"Oh Miranda, Chloe's only just turned eight. But you know, we _have_ been waiting before having more kids. I mean we weren't scary young when we had Chloe, I was nineteen and Marc was twenty-two when we got pregnant and I was just two months off turning twenty when she was born but we felt like she needed to be our whole world. The first five years we we're so busy trying not to screw up this incredible little person we'd created it really didn't occur to us to have any other kids. Then I went back to study part time when she started Kindergarten and I finished the degree I'd put on hold back when she was born, midway through the year she started school so we decided to try me working part time for a few years so we could afford to move somewhere really nice before Chloe got too old - and then, Marc got the job at Aera Energy and we found ourselves packing up the house we'd moved into eight-and-a-half years ago and heading South."

Nell paused to take in breath. This was so much harder when it wasn't just Kensi. These women were so much scarier than the women from the street where she grew up and it was so much more serious when she had a cover to defend rather than just being able to talk about her real family.

"And that makes you - 27 or is it 28? Not long now till 30 creeps up on you, is it girls?"

Trust Miranda to reduce all their careful planning and rehearsing down to a simple equation about how many eggs were left in her ovaries and that this failure to act undermined her whole character. Nell was glad she'd never been afraid of ageing because spending time with Miranda could make anyone paranoid.

There really was only one quick way out of this conversation; she just had to hope she could pull it off. And that she had a chance to explain to Eric before he heard it from someone else. She'd never been the girl who's love life was an open book to her friends but she needed to get Miranda to feel like she'd won and an admission seemed like the only option. Nell didn't have to fake the heat that was colouring her cheeks; for once her redhead propensity blush came to her aid. She barely registered the snick of a door being closed as she committed to her act and set the scene for her lies.

"Well, uh with Chloe needing to be in bed so early after all the added excitement of a new school and new friends and Marc being in a more senior role so he can be home for dinner each night - well - we're hoping that soon we'll have news for you all." Placing a hand over her belt buckle, Nell pulled out the last stopper in the charade, "That our family will get a little bigger before this year is out."

For one terrible moment, no one said anything.

They had all turned to stare at something on Nell's left - towards the hallway that lead to the carport. Knowing what she would see and hoping that it was actually a guy holding a gun, she turned to look.

Eric stood, briefcase and keys in one hand, flowers in the other as though he'd been frozen in place.

Nell was only vaguely aware of the sudden onslaught of 'Congratulations' and well wishes as the women around her came to life. All she could see was Eric and that goofy grin that just kept growing. She couldn't help smiling back and wishing, just in that moment, they really did have news to share.

She didn't notice Eric dumping everything he was holding on the hall table. All she saw was him coming towards her. Felt him lifting her out of her chair and turning so his back was to the group of gawking women so they didn't have front row seats as he lowered his lips to hers.

Her arms had wound round his neck as he lifted her up and it could have been a pack of hungry lions instead of six nosy housewives in her living room and she probably wouldn't have paid them any more attention. It was a kiss that should have been for show. A kiss between _Sally and Marc_ to seal a lie, that should have been followed up quickly by accepting congratulations and finding a new topic of conversation with minimum gossip potential. It shouldn't have made her head spin. It shouldn't have made her forget who and where they were. It shouldn't have meant anything - but it did.

With his lips making gentle demands and hers answering with demands of their own, the heat she'd gotten hints of flared like wildfire. The first, hesitant brush of Eric tongue against her lower lip had Nell struggling not to moan in pleasure as she tried to move closer in his arms. When he changed the angle so he could capture that same lip between his and suck gently Nell felt what little restraint she had slip away. Threading her fingers into his hair she used his need for air to slip her tongue inside his mouth, her exploration more insistent than Eric's almost reverent caress. It was oxygen in the end that forced them apart for long enough to remember their guests. To realise they were putting on a show, it just wasn't the one Nell had planned. For a moment Nell looked into Eric's eyes, noticing how the green she loved had become a thin emerald sliver around a wide, dark pupil making them look even more gorgeous. Eric gave her one last, hard kiss before turning and gently setting her feet back on the ground so she was standing in front of him, his right arm still wrapped possessively around her waist. Nell was glad of his arm and being able to subtly lean back against him as she struggled to find her balance and something to say to the women who were watching with undisguised interest and pleasure.

"Are your friends staying to dinner Sal?"

It was an absurd thing to ask given it couldn't have been after three in the afternoon but Eric's husky words had an incredible effect on their guests who were suddenly looking at watches, gathering bags and offering to show themselves out. If you overlooked all the blatant comments about not wasting any time working on that extra family member, it was by far the most efficient way to clear the house.

Nell made a very unconvincing protest that they were, of course welcome to stay - as she walked them to the door and even got out of all the fanfare of hugs because Eric still hadn't relinquished his hold on her. They'd declined Miranda's offer to bring Chloe home after dinner at her place but still made no real effort to stop their guests leaving in haste.

As the door closed and they were alone in the house again, Nell wished she could just turn in his arms and pick up where they left off. Or better still, start over letting their hands roam free now they didn't need to use them to hang-on. But it wasn't that simple and one of them needed to pick Chloe up in just under an hour so they had to talk now.

As if he'd sensed her indecision Eric gently turned her to face him and without letting go, gave them both some space.

"Nell, are you okay?"

Nell couldn't help smiling. Despite all the evidence that he'd been just as effected by the unexpected kiss as she had been, his first soft words had been for her. That Nell Jones being okay was more important than why Sally just told all their neighbours they were trying to have another kid when up until today they'd never even had a proper first kiss.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Are you okay Eric?" It felt right to use their real names even though they'd promised they wouldn't say them out loud again till the mission was over.

"Better. I'm better than okay." And for a moment they just stood there and grinned at one another.

"So - we're - uh - giving Chloe a brother or sister - according to the local grapevine."

Nell tried to think of how to explain that she'd been boxed into a corner when all the conversations seemed so harmless playing them back in her head. And bringing up biological clocks seemed like an even more awkward discussion than the one they were already having.

"It just kinda - "

"Can we skip the next dinner party we get invited to, to keep the rumour alive?"

They both laughed, breaking the hyper awareness and somehow, that was enough. They could relax and be them again but Eric kept his arm around her as they turned and headed back into the lounge room.

"We could always turn up terribly late -" Nell suggested, leaning into his side.

"Or at least leave early -"

"Both beat having to sit through a three-hour dinner with that lot."

"Anything would beat a three-hour dinner with that lot."

"Touche."

"Did they at least bring anything good with them? Like cake?"

Nell gave Eric a gentle shove in the ribs, "You just came home early in case they ate it all."

"Maybe I was coming home early as backup."

"They're housewives not armed robbers."

"Could have fooled me. Seemed to have you tied in knots."

Nell had to concede he had a point so she deflected, "Didn't I see some flowers?"

"Flowers?" Eric frowned in concentration, "Oh! I totally forgot, I got you some flowers."

"Thank-you."

"You haven't seen them yet."

"No, I meant thank-you for being okay with this. It all just happened really fast and I would have called and told you -"

Eric put a finger gently against her lips, "It's okay. If there was a reset button, I'd do it all again."

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_**Thanks for reading, I'd love to know what you think! **_


	7. Ways & Means

**AN: **I'm back. My sincerest apologies for abandoning you for so long, my muse got forcibly detained by daily life and before I knew it, it was Easter! But I've finally had some time off so I'll do my best to try and get a tiny bit ahead. Thank you for all sticking with me & I hope this chapter isn't a disappointment after such a long wait. Happy Easter!

**Disclaimer: **Alas, my lack of worthy affiliations hasn't changed. Ownership is still, sadly, with CBS and the creators of NCIS and NCIS LA.

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**Chapter 7: Ways & Means**

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It's been a long time since she'd wanted to be invisible so that people would stop talking about her. The fact that the last time had also been in the grounds of a school was not helping. She hadn't realised the edgy feeling that made her want to run as fast and as far away as possible could come back after so much time and training. The irony was this time being noticed was all part of the game plan. Her game plan. She just hoped Bethany was quick grabbing her things, the sooner they got out of here the happier she would be.

Then maybe she could find a way to forget all the justifications she kept coming up with about why it would not just be okay but _good_ for their cover if she was to slip her arm round Eric's waist and take that one step closer than the comfortable distance they were currently keeping. The fact that she wanted to close the distance should have set off muted alarm bells, but it didn't. She'd never been a hugger or a holder of hands in her relationships, always enjoying that one tiny element of being a separate entity. It wasn't like she made a big deal out of it if the other person was but she never initiated it. Then again it wasn't like this was the first of the walls she'd discovered didn't apply to Eric. Ever since they'd first sorted out their differences and begun to work as a real team in OPS she'd known she'd need a whole new set of rules to define their friendship by. One of them was not being surprised when she discovered he'd managed to slip past one of the walls that kept everyone else at arms length. She'd decided quickly it was because, for once, she was up against an intellectual equal and that was one label she wasn't about to review any time soon. Which still left her standing beside him, wanting to reach out to her equal and wishing she at least had a pocket she could put her hand in to deaden the temptation.

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It hadn't been until they were almost ready to go that they had considered the implications of almost certainly seeing all the women who they'd just recently ushered out of their house at the school to pick up their children at the same time as they were there picking up Bethany.

Nell had realised it only when Eric had been attempting to bring back a degree of respectability to the hair her fingers had unwittingly dishevelled. He'd turned partially away from her so that he could see the hall mirror better and was busy running his own, more systematic fingers through his hair.

"Wait. Let me." Nell stepped forward as he turned but instead of assessing his hair, her fingers reached for the tie around his neck. She was careful in avoiding his eyes but it was almost impossible to untie the silk knot without her fingers brushing against the warm cotton of his shirt.

"Sal - " Eric's words were closer to a groan than a question or warning, making her pause just as she was about to slide his tie out from under his collar.

Nell didn't dare look up. He might not have said her real name but that didn't stop her heart rate picking up or her fingers from fumbling at the implication in his tone. Knowing it wasn't the answer either of them wanted and realising too late that this idea might just be more than either of them could handle, Nell took a deep breath.

"They'll all be at the school." Nell winced; she always seemed to start difficult sentences in the middle when she was flustered. "The women who were here today, I mean, that saw - that think once they left -"

"I still don't -"

"They think we're trying to have another kid. Carte blanche and an hour before school pick up. Keeping those rumours alive - it starts now"

Nell felt as much as heard the breath rush out of Eric's lungs as the realisation hit that what had been a joke to break the tension an hour ago, had just become their new reality.

"And we need to look the part." Eric said softly, his hand coming to rest lightly on her waist.

"Like we've made an effort to look right but rushed and missed a couple of things." Nell agreed, trying to ignore the way her breath caught as his gentle tug on her shirt had it sitting just slightly off centre.

It wasn't just her shirt that was slightly off centre by the time they decided they'd doctored enough. Nell felt decidedly off balance by the time she had Eric's top button undone, the second only partly fastened and his collar slightly turned up at the back and that wasn't even counting the strands of hair he'd gently pulled out of her butterfly clip or the precarious angle one of her earrings had been eased into.

Glancing at her watch Nell was shocked to discover only a couple of minutes had past. They'd still make it in plenty of time if they walked quickly.

.

Turned out it was one thing, in the quiet and privacy of your home, to set out to be noticed by a specific group of people. And quite another standing among the small crowd of waiting parents who had nothing better to do than gossip and zero intention of concealing that fact.

"...making up for lost time..."

"...could have been a coincidence but not after that kiss..."

"...earring, collar, _both_ shirts..."

"...almost _nine years..."_

She tried not to listen.

It was all for show. All part of the plan. But it still felt like a serious invasion of privacy. She willed the bell to ring, willed the kids to start rushing out of their respective classrooms. Tried not to remember the gentleness with which Eric had figured out what angle he needed to balance the fishhook at so her earring would stay, as though knocked, partly out of her ear.

Nell kept sneaking glances at his profile, knowing his eyes were focused on the door Bethany would soon be exiting. It wasn't till her third look that she saw it. Just behind his ear there was there was a patch of hair that still looked tangled despite Eric's earlier attempts at smoothing it all down. A tiny section of reality in a mirage of carefully planned red herrings. Quickly she looked away, willing herself not to notice anything else. Silently she started to run through the 50 states in order of date of statehood. _Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia-_

"I know you said we want them to talk - I mean to, um, notice but - do they have to talk quite so loudly?" Eric whispered, successfully derailing her train of thought.

Nell wasn't sure how she managed listen to what Eric was whispering in her ear. His warm breath ghosted across the side of her face and he was so close she would have sworn his lips brushed the shell of her ear as they conveyed their barely audible message.

She was so distracted by it she almost missed the green door opening and the sight of Bethany weaving her way though the sudden rush of kids going in all directions.

_'Saved by the bell,' _Nell thought ruefully.

Nell wasn't quite sure if it was Eric who bent down or if Bethany took a flying leap. But either way suddenly Bethany, bag and all was, settled on Eric's left hip (no small feat when you considered that men's hips rose higher and didn't flare out to create a ledge like women's) and rather than being left out she found her self being tucked into his right side as he started to manoeuvre them through the growing crowed of four-foot dynamos towards the exit.

"I'm so glad you came. I knew you'd come. Did you know Ancient Egypt were some of the first to have maths and complex building techniques and modern medicine - well there was still a belief in magic too but they had their own system of gods and..."

Bethany managed to talk, without allowing so much as a breath's space for input from Nell or Eric the whole way home. They progressed from Ancient Egypt to her teachers, to kids called Stacey and Brian and half-a-dozen others, to the games she'd played at lunchtime, to what materials they had to use in art. Nell had always thought of herself as someone who could absorb any amount of information and put it into an orderly format quickly so she could remember it all and remember what questions she wanted to ask. But the speed and diversity of topics with no segways had even her Mensa quality brain struggling to keep up with the little girl who hadn't even paused for breath when she'd decided she wanted to walk between them rather than be carried, shortly after leaving the school gates.

There was something incredible endearing about Bethany's insatiability for knowledge. Her excitement bubbled over into skipping steps when she got too involved in what she was telling them. Eric and Nell got to be so attune with how her mind affected her little legs that they'd be lifting her gently off the ground and setting her down the step ahead before she had a chance to miss the step that would have put her behind them.

Nell couldn't help smiling; Bethany's enthusiasm really was infectious. It made Nell wonder when she'd last been that excited about anything. Somehow every single example she could come up with in the last few years revolved around Eric. Her first couple of weeks at NCIS when she'd nearly ruined it all by being unable to control her desire to finish sentences; the first case they'd worked as a real team - she may as well just admit now that seeing Eric each morning in OPS tended to bring out that endless enthusiasm to know and do more. The only difference was that somewhere along the track she'd managed to bottle it up, suppressing it even from herself and only letting it out in quick smiles and high-fives...and the occasional hug when things got really hairy. Most of the time she figured she was pretty good at hiding it now, even from her family who'd could usually see straight through her. That's not to say Eric couldn't still drive her up the wall and round the bend with some of his more annoying habits. But even his jealous and protective moods tended to bring out quiet smiles once she was finally alone and the initial annoyance passed.

"Cut fruit just tastes better. Can't I have that instead?"

The combination of Bethany's imploring tone and the sharp tug on her hand had Nell realising that somehow she'd gotten lost in her own thoughts between the front door and the kitchen and completely tuned out. Taking a second she replayed the last couple of seconds in her mind. She might not have been concentrating on it but she had heard it. Cut fruit. Right. She hadn't even thought about sorting out afternoon tea, after all she and Eric had just polished off the last of the selection the neighbourhood's finest had brought with them. It was going to take a lot of getting used to Nell decided if this is what it was going to be like every day after school. She'd never needed a 'Mom' mode before.

"You have a point Munchkin," Eric admitted, looking to Nell.

It wasn't that Eric was saying: you're female you cut the fruit. It was more that he looked to her for approval. They both knew he'd find a way to give Bethany a slice of the moon if she really wanted it. Within the first 24 hours of leaving LA they'd developed an unspoken system of checking neither of them were unnecessarily indulging or denying Bethany's wishes. They were charged with looking after her, not just making her happy and they'd had the 'we don't want to create a monster' conversation about horror children they'd been unfortunate enough to encounter before they'd even packed up the car for Bakersfield.

_"_Alright, you grab your lunch box and any homework out of your bag and go wash your hands and I'll get started on the fruit." Nell said, making a mental note to add fruit to the shopping list. At this point they were eating more fruit in a day than she'd gotten through in a week.

"I didn't mean you -" Eric said awkwardly as soon as Bethany had raced off for the bathroom.

"I know. But I've got this covered so you may as well grab any work you've brought home and wash your hands too," Nell winked at him as his expression went from awkward to bemused at being given the same instructions as a six-year-old. "We'll try and create a new routine. Make afternoon tea and homework a family thing."

"You're good at this you know."

Eric's soft words caught her by surprise. Looking up in time to see him smile with something akin to pride before he slipped out into the corridor to join Bethany in the bathroom.

Nell smiled as she heard Eric pretend to be _An Inspector of Cleanliness_, full of mock gruffness and the echoing laughter when Bethany then insisted on being allowed to inspect _his_ hands once he'd washed them. Eric might have been the one to say it but really it was he who was good at this. Sure she had a big family and lots of memories to draw on of the tricks her mother had used to wrangle her brother and sisters but Eric was a true natural.

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She had no idea how they were going to just go back to their lives once this was over. It was making her think that maybe she'd been wrong when she'd replied to Hetty's 'The Talk' with the simple statement that they'd already decided there'd be no regrets. Attraction had always been a factor in their partnership. So had the possibility that one day they'd act on it. They'd been pretty confident they could make it through unscathed because their partnership meant so much to both of them and neither would pressure one into more than they were ready for.

The only thing they hadn't factored in was the idea that their partnership might not seem like it was complete any more without certain little person who couldn't sleep without a bedtime story.

Because she was pretty sure they could go back to their separate apartments, to seeing each other at work and on weekends. It would be different but not impossible. But never being anything more than an occasional visitor, an outsider in Bethany's life? That was getting harder to contemplate with every day that passed.

A tiny, treacherous part of her even wondered if maybe it was taking longer to solve this case because maybe she and Eric weren't ready to give it up. But even as that thought surfaced she knew it wasn't true. The danger was real and none of them ever lost sight of that. She'd make time tonight to start sorting out a plan of action with Eric.

But it could wait till Bethany was safely tucked up in bed and she'd gotten everything sorted for school tomorrow.

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_**Thanks for reading!**_


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